


celestial strings.

by jeonginks



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Magic AU, Mentions of Blood, Red String of Fate, Soulmate AU, Strangers to Lovers, a little bit of action, kind of slow burn?, mentions of killing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:40:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 59,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25233292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeonginks/pseuds/jeonginks
Summary: having been alone most of your life, the last thing you thought would gain you a few friends and a home was helping a random boy get past the school gate after he was late.
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Reader
Comments: 15
Kudos: 54





	celestial strings.

Jisung gave the school gate a kick for his frustration. It did not release his inner turmoil.

Having woken up late this morning, he spent his entire morning rushing his routine. His uniform was sloppy, his hair was disheveled and his breath probably smelt of the ugly morning air, his toast with Nutella spread across unevenly was only half-eaten before it flew out of his grip as he stumbled across a pit of air. 

There were more little tragedies hidden in between the above-mentioned examples, and all of that hard work was reduced to nothing when Jisung found himself standing before a locked gate.

All the effort and sacrifices made to make sure he is not late to school; all the effort and sacrifices yet he was still not acknowledged by the prefect, who had promptly spun on her heels and marched away at the call of the first school bell, leaving Jisung behind those rusty bars just as the school rules and the discipline teacher told her to do. 

It was great. Not only was he unable to head to class, but he also left a bad impression on the pretty senior prefect.

“Fantastic,” Jisung muttered under his breath when everything was, in fact, not fantastic.

Touching the fence with his fingers, Jisung gave himself a brief moment of evaluation as he gave the metal a quick squeeze and feigned the movement of pulling himself up to test out the weight. A huff of groan left his lips as his feet dropped back down on the ground. His brows were immediately furrowed at the seemingly impossible task.

It felt too heavy to have to pull himself up, not to mention the gate was about the same height of the giant brick wall attached to either side of it. He could not have been able to jump over the fence due to the sharp edges at the top end, which he thought was unnecessary and dramatic to be added as an additional decoration to the already heavily patterned gate.

Jisung released a hopeless sigh when he realized there was no other way to let himself in unless he calls up a friend, which was even more unreasonable than the previous ideas he has got under his sleeve. 

Patting his jeans with his palms, he braced himself emotionally to endure the overuse of strength to pull himself up before he kicked himself up and grabbed onto the fence. He struggled as he reached one arm up for the gate board for support, huffing immensely.

“Hey! Do you need a hand?”

Jisung turned his head to the voice and, with his lack of concentration on his arms, he released himself down on the ground and stumbled back a few steps before gathering his composure again. 

You glanced at his messy uniform with a grimace as you came out from the shadow of the tall tree behind the school wall. The sun hit your face fairly now that you stepped out to the light, and Jisung held a breath inwardly.

Great. Embarrass yourself in front of another pretty person, why wouldn’t you, Jisung?

“No, I am fine! I can climb this easily! This is nothing!” Jisung waved his hand as he spoke between nervous laughs. He did realize that trying to play cool when he was not only caught red-handed but also when he was in desperate need of help was most possibly one of the worst ideas he has ever thought of, but did his intuition stop him from doing it anyway? 

No. It did not.

You raised your eyebrows at him in mild amusement. You saw him struggling to bring himself up the fence just a few seconds ago but if he was too embarrassed to admit that to you, you were perfectly fine with letting the matter go and head onto your own way. 

You had only stopped to help him because you thought it would be a quick ordeal, not because you got free time on your hands.

Shrugging, you nodded and continued to walk ahead, “Alright then. Have a great day at school.”

A comical silence fell upon the two of you. Instead of the raven cawing thrice way too close above his head, the silence was counted in the form of your footsteps. Your boots hit against the brick ground, scraping against it with each step to remind him that his only help (potentially, at least) was slowly walking away from him. 

Jisung raised his hand a little to do a small beckoning that went completely unnoticed as he turned his head down to the floor.

What was more important? He asked himself. Was it impressing someone who knew you were lying your heads off or was it filling out the test paper he spent three nights studying for? What was more important, Jisung? A fish in the sea or your academic success?

He huffed with a pout and spun around to face your back. “Wait a second! I do need some help!”

You paused and turned to look over your shoulder at him. Your brows were furrowed in faint annoyance, and when you met Jisung’s eyes, it was very likely he had caught onto the negativity you were expressing with your eyes since he immediately shrunk back with his shoulders and clamped his lips tightly together. 

He really should have just asked for help the first time; something about what he did felt a little pathetic in your opinion. And you were pretty sure he felt the extra embarrassment too.

Reaching your hand to your backpack, your hastily unzipped the front pocket of your bag and reached inside to pull out a small, rectangular-shaped plastic board. It has colored strings wrapped around it several times, all lined up in a row and some thicker in pile than the other. 

You tugged at the end of the red string and pulled out an ample amount before you pulled it apart from the plastic board.

“Turn around,” you told Jisung once you approached him.

Jisung widened his eyes in confusion. “What–“

“I am going to hoist you up and you are going to climb over the fence, okay?” You said, linking and twisting the red string in your hands, creating a pattern unfamiliar to anything Jisung has ever seen before. Before you could chant a spell, your eyes glared up at Jisung and you paused your movements.

He was staring at the string in your hand. He recognized the format of what you were doing, he played it occasionally with his friends in school. It was a game of Ayatori, the game of strings. Except he has never been able to play it far enough to create the pattern you just did all with your own two hands.

“Hello? Do you want my help or not?” You asked to break the silence, waving your hands in front of his face while keeping it still in its position. “I don’t have all day, man.”

Jisung seemed to shake his head slightly. His hair waved along with the slight tremble of his head, then he blinked a few times to fully pull himself back from his thoughts. “Um, yes, yeah. sorry about that.” He nodded at you and quickly turned around when you gave him a sudden glare, a grimace forming on his face.

You pursed your lips as you watched his back, making sure he wasn’t trying anything sneaky to peek behind you. Those curious eyes were what you knew all too well of, and one thing you knew for sure was that nothing ever goes well for you when you choose to entertain their owners.

Especially when they realized you weren’t just someone with magic tricks up your sleeves, like bunnies in top hats or pigeons hidden behind coats, but instead someone with _magic–_ magic, like the classic fireballs and the inhumane strength.

“Imperium Viribus,” you muttered under your breath and let your fingers—which were supporting the glyphic pattern of the string—straighten themselves. But instead of falling limp around the gaps of your fingers, the red string floated in mid-air and levitated itself just above the tips of them.

The string shone a pure shade of white, outlining the ruby red color of the exquisite string that was mass created by your family. The figure cut itself in half to move towards both of your hands, which were slightly extended patiently. The pattern it once was had faded out as it shifted its place, moving to a stop when the circle gap was big enough to go through your hands.

It moved downwards towards your wrist, the vibration of its pure magic raising goosebumps on your forearms, and it wrapped itself around your wrist perfectly like a bracelet custom-made for you.

Jisung winced in surprise when he felt you place your hand on either side of his waist. Your fingers found its place and your thumb pressed against his back with gentle pressure. He willed himself not to shiver at your fairy-like touch while the red blush on his cheek ran wild and spread to his ears.

“On three,” you gripped him once as a signal to prepare before you moved your legs into a better stance. Looking upwards at the gate, thankfully gliding right past his red ears, you calculated the amount of strength needed with your squinted eyes before you exhaled, “One, two, three!”

You moved your arms up while Jisung jumped up to aid your action. However, much to your wrongful calculations, you have overpowered the muscles in your arm and instead of hoisting the poor boy up so he could grab onto the ledge of the gate, you made the mistake of literally throwing him over to the other side of the gate.

Jisung let out a panicked shriek when he felt himself lunging forward without any kind of momentum. Reaching his hand back in hopes to grab anything, all the could catch was air before his shoulder hit the dusty ground of the walking track, then his body and his legs. His body hit the ground with a thud, and for a split second, Jisung could not think of anything but the big question marks and exclamation marks roaming in his head.

How the hell did you just throw him over the gate? Who are you, Clark Kent?

No, Jisung. Clark Kent will never throw someone over the gate and let them fall to the ground so pathetically like that.

Your mouth was hung open as you watched the terrible flip happen before your eyes, your hands pausing in an awkward position right under your chin. As Jisung groaned and withered slightly in pain on the ground, you took tentative steps toward the gate and wrapped your hands around the fence.

Leaning forward, you gave Jisung a concerning scan before asking, “Are you okay? I am so sorry about this!”

Your phone vibrated in your pocket and you knew right from the bat that it was your boss texting you for being late. Damn, time sure passed fast, you really thought you had a few more minutes to spare for this boy. You supposed you could find a space and cast a teleportation spell, though, so everything should be fine for you.

“Hey, look! I am sorry again, but I have to go now!” You exclaimed in between the fence at Jisung, who was shaking off the soreness of his body as he stood up. “Take care of yourself, alright! And head to class, you are late!”

“Yeah, I know that!” He exclaimed without looking at you, too busy dusting himself off and checking out the bleeding scrape on his arm.

A small rock must have scratched his skin when he fell, he didn’t even feel it due to the overall impact of the fall. When he glanced back up at you, wanting to thank you for the help instead of hollering at you for throwing him over the gate, you were already gone.

* * *

The road you were walking through was familiar to you. For one, you take the same path to head to your part-time job every early morning. 

You could safely say you knew every architecture of this road like the back of your hand—from the small church where the pastor would occasionally hand you a small cupcake when he sees you walking past, to the stray calico cat that paces on the same brick wall every morning.

For two, you threw a boy over the school gate just this morning, and it was possibly one of the most memorable things you have done the entire month aside from meeting the worst customers at your part-time job and trying so damn hard not to manifest spikes and vines from the ground to give them a life lesson.

It was infuriating; unbelievable, even. The fact that you have all the power yet somehow you became the minority and gained the need to hide as soon as you stepped into a land where the majority of people lacks magic in their veins.

Glancing over at the school, you could see students piling out of the school gate in crowds. Looking over at the sun, you hummed a little with the acknowledgment that it was already the time for schools to let their students out. 

Stifling an annoyed groan (you had hoped to get the chance to walk through an empty street), you straightened your back and grabbed onto the straps of your bag, preparing yourself as if you were about to walk through a battlefield.

Something was unsettling about being the only person within the crowd not wearing a school uniform despite being the same age as everyone else. Paranoia sets out to make you overthink every glance and every whispered word you could detect, and everything ultimately gets transferred to a piece of self-judgment you could never forget.

Unconsciously, you lowered your head and decided to speed walk your way through this herd of teenagers. Half-way through the crowd, you could hear a familiar voice calling out. 

Although unsure of whether the voice was reaching out to you, you chose to spare the owner a glance anyway and immediately met eyes with the boy you helped in the morning. 

Your legs stopped moving as you waited for him to run towards you, much to your heart’s dismay. Jisung came to an abrupt stop in front of you, then he bent down to catch his breath. Throughout the entirety of him rushing over to your side, the natural smile never once left his cheeky face. The way he seemed to be glad to see you made you lower your guard slightly.

“Hello!” He greeted you enthusiastically as soon as he stood up straight, his luscious hair bouncing with the movements of his body.

You gave him a weak nod in return. “Hi. How is your hand?”

Jisung widened his eyes, not knowing that you saw the injury when you had left so early in the morning. He moved to touch the white bandage around his palm and twisted his wrist a little as if to soothe out the pressure of its tightness. 

Then he looked back up at you, his eyes crinkling into an assuring smile. “It is fine. Were you worried?”

You tilted your head at him, eyebrows raising for a moment before you shrugged. “I did throw you over the gate. The least I can do is worry a little about what I caused.”

The corner of Jisung’s lips curled downwards in approval as he nodded. On that note, he did have the urge to ask you how you managed to easily hoist him over the ledge of the gate like that when he could barely manage to pull himself up. However, his chance was fired at when you gave him a curt nod of farewell.

“Well then, goodbye,” you said.

“Wait! I haven’t thanked you yet!” He exclaimed a second later, reaching out half-way to you before you suddenly turned around. He cleared his throat and quickly removed his extended arm, hiding it behind his back where his fingers were extended straightly in nervousness that he had almost touched you unannounced.

Sensing that you were giving him the opportunity to properly thank you for helping him sneak into the school and essentially breaking the rules, Jisung placed his hands back to his front and he lightly bent his waist to a bow. 

He cleared his throat and spoke in a more serious tone, “Um… thank you for helping me get to school today.”

You grimaced at the formality, but due to your lack of desire to engage in a further conversation, you only nodded with a small smile. “It’s nothing. Just don’t be late next time.”

“I wish I can, but it is hard trying to get up after pulling an all-nighter and only sleeping for two hours,” Jisung complained with a stomp of his foot, an adorable pout forming on his face.

You blinked at the way he just initiated a conversation right on the spot. He could have just laughed and said “okay” but _no_ , he commented something that would compel to you say something in return. 

You weren’t even sure if he had intended for his comment to lead to anything. It was just an opportunity placed right in front of you to chat more with him, an opportunity you really did not wish to take.

“Just don’t go to school then, no one is stopping you,” you said, going against your will and being just about the worst conversation killer ever.

“I can’t do that!” Jisung gasped in faint irritation at the thought and he shook his head. “My parents will murder me if I don’t go to school!

You hummed then, your lips curling down in acknowledgment. A painful flash sparked in your eyes as the mention of family, one which Jisung was unable to notice due to the short amount of time it stayed. Your emotion was quickly bumped back to your normal state, and immediately your poor mechanism came into play.

“Oh,” you shrugged with an exaggerated pull of your facial feature. “Well, mine are both dead so I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

Jisung felt his mind blackout. Your words were easy, understandable, and they were immediately processed in his brain—your parents were dead, which made you an orphan, which would explain why he never saw you in a school uniform.

The tragedy he could easily comprehend. What he was not able to grasp quickly was how to respond to your statement. His immense amount of empathy was ready to jump out of his throat at any given moment but he wasn’t sure if encouragement would be served as a mockery to you. 

In the midst of his thought process, you took his silence as an opportunity for you to quickly leave the situation.

You had not thought to expose that aspect of your life, albeit it didn’t matter since he was a total stranger and there was a ninety-nine percent chance you would never see him again. His stoic reaction to your past added to the helplessness you were feeling, which in turn amplified your urge to get the hell out of the crowd and be at a place where you could breathe on your own.

“I’m going to leave now,” you muttered quietly under your breath, not caring if he could hear you or not. “Take care.”

Then you spun on your heels and quickly left the scene. Strangely, Jisung decided it would be better for him to just let you go.

* * *

The tutorial center was less boring than it usually was, but Jisung knew it was only because his mind was preoccupied with what you said to him back at the school gate.

It was very much within his character to let his head linger on a stranger whose name he still has no idea of. More often than not, people give their condolences and they forget after a brief moment of grieving. At the end of the day, the disaster was not upon their life but another. But Jisung had always tended to put the responsibility on himself to feel as others do, and he remembers even after days and weeks.

Needless to say, Jisung felt extremely conflicted. He wasn’t sure why he thought holding you back would be a bad idea when he knew he has got a lot to tell you; a whole lot of heartfelt, encouraging, friendly words he wanted to say. And a big bear hug to temporarily release your hidden sorrows, if you would let him.

Breathing out a soft sigh to collect himself, Jisung walked along the dark path that would lead him back to his home. As he made his way past the convenience store located in between two residential areas, he glanced up at the sign for no apparent reason other than to change the position of his neck and to face a different scenery.

Then he caught sight of you. His heart leaped happily when his eyes registered your figure. You were sitting by the glass pane, where the bar tables and chairs were located, and you were too busy blowing at the instant noodle to care about the approaching figure outside in the street. It was only when Jisung made his way to the glass and started knocking gently at the wall did you look up.

Your eyes rounded at his grinning face, and for one moment you almost let yourself glare him off. You thought better of it, considering that he probably meant no harm and only wanted to say hello before going about his night. But you did curse under your breath at this sudden encounter—how the fuck did you two bump into each other again? This is a big district! It made zero sense!

Ignoring your vulgar thoughts against destiny and its irregular plans for you, you waved back half-heartedly at the enthusiastic Jisung standing before the glass pane, then you flicked your wrist to give him a shooing motion.

“Go. Leave. Go home,“ you told him, emphasizing the shapes of your lips.

His hand stopped and he tilted his head, most likely having understood you but not yet decided on whether he wanted to follow your wish. You watched as those brows of his furrowed a fraction and his eyes flashed rebelliously, then he shook his head and turned to walk over to the front door of the convenience store. 

The grip you had on your chopsticks loosened in defeat as you deadpanned at yourself, waiting for Jisung’s arrival.

“Good evening!” Jisung said once he was standing next to you, just next to the stool at your side.

“Good evening,” you greeted back, turning to glance at him briefly.

Jisung ignored the lack of enthusiasm in your voice, which he kind of knew was not from exhaustion caused by a day’s worth of work, and he held the straps of his backpack just to take it off and dump it on the countertop. Jumping onto the tall stool, he adjusted his position before turning his head over to look at you.

He observed you for a moment, watching as you slurp at your noodle and disregard his presence. You stopped making that softly angered expression, the one with the constantly furrowed brows and the pursing of your lips, and Jisung took it as a cue for him to start talking to you again.

He carefully leaned a little towards your side to ask in a small voice. “How was your day?”

You did not look at him when you replied, “Everything is normal. Just eating some dinner, which you should too.”

Jisung nodded, a look of realization dawning on his face at the mention of dinner. You felt a rush of relief when you saw him drop off the chair and look around the store, thinking he would finally leave you to your own devices. You were wrong. 

After glancing around the store, Jisung returned his attention to you and asked, “Can you save me the seat?”

You looked at him with questioning eyes. “Why?”

“So I can get dinner,” Jisung said, pointing towards the cashier. He then giggled, a light snort coming out of his nose. “Well, I know there isn’t anyone here but just in case, you know!”

“No, I mean as in–“ You paused, then you sighed in faint distress. “Go home, have dinner with your family.”

He continued to smile at you for the next quiet minute. Not going to lie, it was hurtful when you kept trying to push him away like this. It made him wonder if he had done anything wrong, which if he did then he wouldn’t be able to catch on unless you specifically tell him because the way he has treated you since the moment you two met each other is friendly, and friendly is never wrong in his eyes.

It was so easy for him to just leave you alone, though. There were absolutely no important reasons why he should stay and put in effort just to befriend you. He simply wanted to. 

Jisung wanted to get to know you, which he supposed was a reason important enough for him to pursue his goal. He assumed you were lonely. And weirdly, every time he glances at you, there seemed to be this gradational pull yanking him towards you.

Jisung thought it was a small crush he developed, a feeling that sparked from you helping him during the morning. It could disappear soon but as of now, he had chosen to act upon it. 

Despite knowing it was very impolite of him to continue his curious advances, Jisung decided that as long as you haven’t explicitly told him to leave you alone yet, he just wouldn’t.

“No.” He smiled.

That was an upfront refusal, you were unprepared for such a reaction and as a result, you offered him silence as you frequently did. Jisung patted his bag and he sent you a nod, then he turned to go around the store so he could find something to eat. Meanwhile, you continued to devour the cup noodle in your hands and tried to pay no attention to the warning signs in your head.

Dealing with people on a long-term basis has never been your thing. You have been alone ever since a young age, in a place where people were completely different from you and where people had not been the nicest to your kind, the magic-wielding kind. Due to that, and more specific reasons, you were left unwilling to befriend anybody and you would much rather be left alone most of the time.

It was the first step for you, a giant step as it seemed, to have a meal with someone else. You were so used to staying quiet as you eat that this foreign concept was almost exciting to you. Gulping a dry patch down your mouth, you glared down at the soup and clenched your jaw in dismay.

Not only did the act itself goes against your life compass, but you were also left feeling confused about your feelings because while your head was telling you it would cause you trouble if you let the boy into your life, your heart felt giddy and nervous upon the encounter.

“You are being really tense.”

Jisung’s sudden input made you relax. Your muscles loosened up immediately and your let out a breath you have been holding when you were too busy thinking up all the ways you could fuck up this little dinner time with—what was his name?

“What is your name? My name is (Name),” you blurted out, the tension that was once in your back became visible at once. Your fingers tightened around the wooden chopsticks, giving its structure a small crack as you did do.

Jisung blinked at you in shock. He was in the process of putting down his previously microwaved box dinner, carefully minding the way his fingertips touched the edge of the plastic container because it was so hot there was smoke coming from the graphic surface. 

But everything was blown away now that you had, for the first time, initiated a conversation and asked for his name.

“Uh, nevermind. I never asked.” You turned away to hide your face when he didn’t give you a response, thinking perhaps your approach was too abrupt, which it was but Jisung didn’t mind that aspect one bit.

“No, no, no! My–my name is Jisung! Han Jisung, or just Jisung,” he quickly replied when he saw your change of mood. He got onto the stool clumsily, having all his attention focused on your turned head. His eyes seemed almost desperate if you had given yourself the chance to look at him.

He grabbed onto the edge of the counter as he spoke, “Sometimes people call me Han too, but you can call me whatever you like.”

The fact that he sounded just as nervous as you made you feel slightly better about yourself. Your mind relaxed into a more natural state where for once it was not overthinking everything, and you slowly turned your head to face Jisung, whose eyes brightened at soon as you reacted. He could almost see your soul open up to him, the way you let your guard down when you finally offered him your first smile.

“Hello, Jisung,” you said softly.

“Hi, (Name),” Jisung grinned welcomely.

Your heart was giddy again. It thumped closely to your ribs in hopes to get closer to the vessel of warmth sitting next to you. How long has it been since you’ve made a friend in an unprofessional setting? You only knew it has been years, and the accomplished feeling dwelling in your chest was overpowering the alarms blaring in your head.

You two went about to do your own thing after the brief but needed introduction. You continued to slurp at your noodles, to a point where you were almost finished with the entire bowl. Jisung went ahead to devour the box dinner he just got. 

You two were surrounded by sounds of chewing and plastic bottles being gripped. It was anything but words, and it was getting distastefully awkward that you were starting to shrink back into your personal shell.

Jisung had been too busy deciding whether he wanted to bring up the sensitive topic of your deceased parents. You had finally opened up a little part of yourself to him by giving him your name, the last thing he wanted was to scare you away by reminding you of a traumatic past. 

Heaving a sigh, he casually shifted his head over to your side in an attempt to stretch his neck out a little, then something lining up your forearm caught his sight.

The identical red string he saw you play around in the morning lingered tightly on your forearm. Sitting perfectly next to it were two more strings of two different colors: green and black. 

Chewing as he stuffed another spoonful of rice into his mouth, adding more roundness to his already full cheek, Jisung blinked in thoughts at the strings around your arm.

You clicked your tongue to get rid of the piece of green onion stuck to your teeth. Jisung was not trying to hide the fact that he was staring whatsoever, or perhaps it was you who was just too alert of your surrounding. 

Either way, with a clear assumption of what he would be asking in mind, you turned to him and spoke, “If you have something to ask, just ask, Jisung.”

He blushed faintly at the sudden confrontation but immediately jumped at the chance to talk about what has been concerning his mind almost the entire day. Pointing at your arm, he asked, “What are these strings for? They don’t look like bracelets.”

You glanced down at your hand and cursed under your breath. You hadn’t taken them off since you did not expect Jisung to appear for the rest of the night, and you had been too careless a while ago that you forgot to take them off when he was away either.

Those colored strings were a family heirloom of some sort. Only your family has the steps to create this kind of strings that are utilized by magicians who specializes in string magic. However, ever since the tragic wipeout of your family name, the manufacturing has stopped and you were left with roughly a box of these strings to use for spell-casting purposes. 

It didn’t matter much anymore, everything happened years ago and there was none of your past you intended to reveal to Jisung.

“They are bracelets,” you shrugged, but your voice was so unusually gentle that Jisung could not help but overthink the context of those three simple words.

His gaze moved up to look at you, and he let himself freely scan your expression when he found that you weren’t paying attention to him. He pursed his lips in sympathy when he saw the lack of emotions visible in your eyes. 

There was only a speck of light but it was being dimmed gradually the more you stared at the strings around your arm.

“They are bracelets, it doesn’t matter.” You straightened up. The vulnerable moment you enjoyed over within a blink of an eye and it was time for you to toughen up and get over it as you have always been told to. 

Clearing your throat, you looked down at your empty bowl and clumsily, you reached out for it before dropping off the stool. “I am finished so I am going to leave first.”

Jisung’s jaw dropped a little at your sudden change in attitude. He must have said something wrong. His heart beat in a panicked rhythm as he watched you grab all the trash on the table and wore your bag again. 

He wanted to apologize, he wanted you to stay, he wanted to chat more with you. Yet he was unable to say anything due to being afraid of making things worse for both you and him.

“Goodbye, Jisung,” you said quickly and brushed past him to head to the front door.

“Wa–wait! (Name)!” He called out loudly, causing you to pause and look at him with widened eyes that showed a familiar gleam of anxiety. He flicked back for a second before he turned the volume of his voice down and asked, “Do you have a place to stay? Somewhere to go back to?”

You inhaled a large breath and licked your bottom lip. Reaching out to touch the knob of the glass door, you tightened your grip and opened the door first. Then you turned to look at Jisung, who was still staring at you with utmost concern etched in his eyes.

“No,” you replied and you left the store.

* * *

"Hey, (Name)! Can you set the stage for us? We are trying to take care of the lights and the sound!”

You looked over at the stage crew member and you nodded in response. Moving over to the side of the stage, you fished out one of the many boxes labeled ‘stage props’ and, with the help of an enhanced strength spell, picked it up with ease.

It was all you had been doing this whole day—picking up heavy boxes and putting them down on another spot. After your co-workers (in a theater studio you had recently started to regret signing up to help out for) realized you have the strength of a literal gorilla, they have deemed you the person to do anything that needs even the tiniest bit of power, like picking up boxes that actually weren’t so heavy.

However, you do suppose there were some good coming out of having to do all the heavy work backstage. 

For one, you wouldn’t need to stand in the school hall where the group would be performing. And you didn’t want to do that because lo and behold, after avoiding Jisung for several days due to a self-esteem crisis, you found yourself ending up at the front gate of his school anyway.

It was a miracle how you once again ended up at his doorstep. All these coincidences that called for the encounters of you and him had been butchering your plan to a lifetime of loneliness but you could not say you hate it all that much. 

Jisung was a rather good company whether you like it or not. And amongst all the internal issues of yours, you have to admit you enjoyed his presence.

However, that has not been the case for the past few days. Your goal was to avoid him.

It was too late for you to back down from the job at this point, and since you were never one to convincingly fake an emergency, you went along in hopes that neither he nor you would notice each others’ presence.

After putting up the folded, extremely wrinkled, heavily decorated cardboard, you stumbled back a few steps and clapped your hands together to congratulate yourself for finishing the handiwork. The set-up looked fine according to you after having doubled checked the stage again. 

Now all you needed to do was to hide behind those curtains and never see the light of day until the show ends.

“(Name), can you also set up the microphone for the narrator?”

Yeah, alright. So it takes five seconds to adjust the height and plug in the cord. You shall be fine and it shall be fun.

Moving over to the table, you grabbed one microphone from the row of spare ones and turned it on. A click could be heard through the speakers. You hummed, hitting the top with your hand to make sure the volume was enough. The speaker struck a few times as you did, and you nodded to yourself in approval.

Leaving to pick up the stand, you held it up and walked to the visible edge of the stage. After putting the mic into the holder, you busied yourself with moving the cord around in case any people would trip over it because there will always be one person who trips over it no matter how visible those giant black electric tubes were.

The door opened. Not calmly, though, it was flung open like someone was about to be late to an interview. But that was not where your main focus laid, your attention was immediately diverted to the familiar loud voice that was rapidly spilling words out to his classmates, accompanied by an exhausted teacher trying to shut the voice up.

Despite knowing who it was already, you perked up and looked at the entrance anyway. There Jisung stood, hands waving erratically at his less energetic friend as he rambled on and on about an occasion he had during lunch. 

You felt a gentle heat rush to your cheeks, surely it was from knowing that you had been ghosting him (without him knowing) for days and if you two met eyes at this occasion, it would be the most embarrassing and confronting for you.

His attention was completely diverted, thankfully. It gave you the time to quickly fix the microphone stand and move away to hide. Whipping your head around to fixate your gaze at the back of the red and velvet stage curtain, you quickly and carelessly moved your legs in hopes to get away from the stage as soon as possible. 

However, the second you stepped forward, you felt your leg being pulled down onto the ground and your body lurched forward.

Along with the rest of his class, Jisung snapped his head over to the loud thud coming from the stage. His eyes widened a fraction when he watched as the fallen body slowly scrambled up from the ground. Glancing over to his friend, he gave a sympathetic grimace before turning his head back to see if the fallen person has finally gotten up.

“Oh, (Name). You gotta be careful, you know someone always trips over the cords!”

Oh, now his eyes were wider than ever. His animated hands fell from mid-air and hit his sides while he kept his eyes focused on your figure. You had perked up at your co-worker’s words, your eyes filled with deep-seated anger at the fact that he called out your name so loudly that you were sure everyone in the hall knows who you are now.

Pursing your lips together, you helped yourself up with a low mutter. “Yeah, yeah. I know.”

Dusting your body with your violent hands, your face contained a constant grimace—that you thought your co-worker did not think it was meant for him—that somehow made Jisung feel a sense of softness when you had habitually turned to look at your surroundings.

Oh, yes. He could probably recognize that unsatisfied gaze and that downturned lips anywhere. You are the (Name) he knew of.

You caught eyes with Jisung for only a brief moment and you willed your face not to heat up. It was just Jisung. Nothing very special about it; if you don’t make a big deal out of this, you assumed neither would he. He held your eyes with a small smile, surprisingly, and he raised a hand timidly for a friendly wave.

You sniffed in a breath, the pursing of your lips lightening up at his warm gesture. If he was feeling any kind of repulsiveness towards you then he was not showing it, or maybe he just genuinely did not feel an ounce of hatred for you.

Your mind just liked to tell you weird things and you liked to listen to it. A second passed for you to raise your hand to wave back at him but you were abruptly interrupted when your co-worker reached out to speak to you.

“I think we are all set here. Good job,” he said after taking a scan of the stage, “We have people attending backstage so you should wait at the back of the hall and watch the performance!”

You stared at him in disbelief. With a laugh, you shook your head to turn down the offer, “That is fine. I think I can stay in the back and wait–“

“No need! You have helped to carry things around the whole day. You can go sit at the back,” he insisted cheerfully, causing your heart to drop because it seemed like he didn’t have the attitude to listen to anything you have to say.

You remained silent when he placed his hands on your shoulders and turned you around so you could head to the stairs that would lead you off the stage. You continued to walk when he let go of you, your hands busy scrubbing at your wrists to release the red strings that adorned them. 

The tightness of the strings hadn’t left a mark yet, there was still plenty of magic left in them, so you shoved them in your pocket when they loosened around your skin.

Looking up ahead, your legs did an automatic pause when you saw Jisung sitting on the first chair of the first row. You had not been paying attention enough to realize that his class has walked to the front of the audience area, and due to being one of the shortest in his class, Jisung was placed at the front of the line, hence seated on the first chair.

You gave him a look, hardening your gaze pointedly at him that Jisung shrunk back down to the seat and was forced to only pout up at you. Softening at his reaction, you felt a rush of gentle remorse up your ears. He still wanted to talk to you, huh? Well, you supposed you, too, really wanted to talk to him; about nothing specific, just anything, like the weather.

Removing your hand from your pocket and rubbing them together for the sake of fidgeting, you looked out for the teachers and the other classes piling into the hall before you took tentative steps closer to Jisung’s seat. He was staring up at you now, his eyes round and wide in anticipation.

You felt his feet kick your ankle lightly a few times before he spoke, his hand waving endearingly, “Hello, (Name).”

You couldn’t stop the warm smirk that appeared on your face as you returned his greeting with only a faint nod. Leaning down to his face level, your arm had reached out to his head where you gave his hair a fun ruffle. And before he could give you a verbal reaction, you spoke, “We can talk later when school ends.”

Pulling yourself away from him, you gave the teacher a polite bow and quickly left before you could be ushered away for disturbing the students. As you made little steps towards the back of the hall, you could faintly hear the sound of Jisung’s friends talking. it sounded like something of a teasing exclaim.

* * *

The first thing Jisung did when the teacher dismissed the class was to jump up from his seat and collect everything on his table so he could carelessly shove them back into this bag. He ignored the confused looks and cooing questions of the friends about his sudden rush of movements while he busied himself with pulling all the junk out of his desk drawer.

What he knew was that the last bell has rung about two minutes ago and he could not be too sure if you would choose to wait by the school gate for him. He has to be quick, and he was. 

After he flung his schoolbag over his shoulders, he bid his friends a hasty goodbye and ran out of the classroom. Speeding down the stairs, the way his backpack continued to hit against his back went completely unnoticed until he stumbled out of the front doors of his school.

The front path greeted him with fallen leaves and gusts of wind. Students swarmed around him to leave the school and his eyes skipped past all of them with only one goal in mind: you. His chest heaved with the flow of his gaze, mouth breathing rapidly as his eyes brushed off one after another person as soon as he realized that they were not you.

The dread that you might have left already consumed him with a sense of panic and Jisung gulped hardly at the thought of another round of late-night sensitive thinking about why you had not appeared for days and whether he had chased you away because he asked one stupid question about those strings on your arm.

“You are being really tense.”

He whipped around as his eyes widened. When he saw you standing in front of him, he exhaled in relief and touched his sweaty forehead with his possibly even sweatier palm. A chuckle left his lips when he saw you tilting your head to the side questioningly, and as usual, the first thing he said was a good old ‘hello.’

You carefully observed his body, your intense eyes making him straighten his back. After a short moment, you looked up into Jisung eyes and you spoke, “You are still being really tense. Are you okay?”

“Me? Yeah, sure. Why would I not be?” Jisung laughed with a dismissive wave of his hand, the act causing his posture to be even more rigid than ever. He finally toned himself down when he saw your unamused expression, and he cleared his throat just in case his voice would crack as he speaks. “Nothing happened. I just… um…”

He was planning to tell you that he had a physical battle with his textbooks, ran all the way from the sixth floor, leaped through several flights of stairs just to make sure he gets the chance to talk to you again. 

But it seemed he thought better of it. It was quite dramatic, even Jisung had to stop himself from spilling all his effort out into the wind.

“I just ran a little.” He nodded at you. “You see. Nobody likes school so we try to get out of here as quickly as possible, and that results in me running down the stairs sometimes.”

You stared at him skeptically but soon nodded with a shrug since you had no idea how to judge whether he was lying to you or not. Besides, should it matter if he was being tense or why he ran? It _was_ nothing of your business.

“I know how that feels. I didn’t like school either,” you said casually, “at least when I was still attending one.”

Jisung was still huffing out breaths to calm himself down but you could faintly hear a mini gasp amongst all of them. His blinking was rapid as he gave you a questioning noise, and you snorted at him. 

“Well, of course I went to school once. How did you think I learn how to read? Albeit not as advanced as what you know, possibly.”

You had decided to start walking as you speak. Standing in the middle of the road and forcing everyone else to swerve out of their way to walk past you two was not sitting well with you, especially when everyone seemed to be giving you both the stingy eyes. 

Jisung automatically followed along with you, matching his pace with yours as well as keeping his eyes on you to hopefully prompt a further explanation.

You understood what his expression meant and you pursed your lips with a gentle hum. A lot of things happened when you were in school but none of which you could reveal to Jisung due to how most of your learning material was related to magic. 

You were still unsure whether he would be able to handle the truth well despite only having known him for some time.

Well, at least you have watched him from the sideline for a while. Jisung appeared to be a cheerful person, also very caring and energetic. He did not feel to be the judgemental one with harsh opinions, but the thought alone was not enough to cover all the past mistakes of you revealing your identity as a magic-user.

“Nothing very special happened when I was in school, I just knew I didn’t like it,” you shrugged.

“Well, I can agree with you on that.” Jisung nodded. “High school is pretty fun if you have good friends with you.”

“Do you have good friends? It sounds like it isn’t fun for you,” you asked as you turned to him. You kept a straight face as you asked the question, even though you knew the answer already.

Jisung has a lot of friends, but there were three he hangs out with the most. You did not know of their names, but their faces you could easily recognize: a calm-looking one, a good-looking one, and a cute-looking one. After having made that observation, you could safely conclude that Jisung was the loud-looking one in his friend group. And you didn’t even know loud had a face until you saw him.

“I have good friends–of course, I have good friends!” Jisung spoke proudly. His hand reached up to his chest and he started to count off. 

“Seungmin can be a little blunt but he is really smart and he lets me copy his homework all the time. Hyunjin is a little too good-looking and I feel awkward standing with him sometimes but he also lets me copy his homework. And I might not be able to understand Felix half the time but he teaches me English and he plays games with me.”

You laughed, the genuine sound descending lower and lower until Jisung could hear a hint of sadness seeping through. He piped down from his little ramble and blinked at you with concern, unsure if he had said something wrong once again. 

Upon the sudden silence, you let your eyes peer over to his side and you raised your brows at the worried gaze he was giving you.

“What?” You asked, a smile appearing on your face.

Jisung pouted before he looked away. He stared ahead at the road, speaking nonchalantly, “It’s just… you looked sad, so I thought maybe I said something wrong again.”

“Again?” You questioned.

He nodded. “Yeah. First, it was about the strings. Come to think of it, you reacted a little too strongly for them to just be bracelets,” he pointed out carefully. “But I thought I did something wrong because you haven’t been around here for days now. It is like you are trying to avoid me or something. It bothered me a lot.”

You were rendered speechless. You had not realized you left such an impact in his thoughts, seeing that he was happy hanging out with his existing friends. And now that the situation revealed itself to you, you did not know what to say. Kicking your feet harder against the ground, you rubbed your hands together nervously. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to avoid you.”

“Oh, so you _were_ avoiding me?”

His eyes were empathetic. It made you feel as if telling him the truth wouldn’t hurt you as much as it would hurt him, but even with that though, you couldn’t let go of your cautiousness. You planned to lay it down slowly for him to realize none of it was his fault.

“I was but it is from a personal problem. I just…” your eyes rolled up to the sky in thoughts, then you came to a stop when you found out you two have arrived at the main gate of the school. “I haven’t met a friend in a really long time so I am a little rough around the edges when it comes to social interactions.”

“Oh…” Jisung softened at your honesty. It was more affectionate than anything he could ask for to have you pour your heart out in front of him just to clear a misunderstanding. 

It must have been hard for you to do so, he assumed. And it brought him a real joy to know that you chose to spill the beans despite the embarrassment that often surrounds the act.

“Thank you for telling me that,” he said with a faint smile, soft as feather and light as the night.

The weight of rocks was lifted off your shoulders upon his smile. You exhaled gently, returning his smile. The wind blew but it never seemed to hit the both of you fully; it brushed past the tip of your hair as if to wave goodbye. 

Under this almost sentimental atmosphere, Jisung recalled the first day he met you and how he had thought you were pretty.

He almost forgot about that. He had been too focused on the emotions aspect of you to fully appreciate your features. And in all honesty, right now didn’t seem to be the best time to do it either, but he was staring until you broke the silence.

You jabbed your thumb behind your back. “I am going to take my leave now. You should go back home too, Jisung.”

“Ah–hey, wait! Wait!” Jisung reached out for you, his hand not retreating to his side this time as he let himself get a full grasp of your wrist. When you turned around to look at him, your eyes peering down at the tight grip of his hand and back up at him, he gulped down the knot in his throat. “I… I have something to say.”

You turned around to face him once again, gently removing your hand from his. Jisung scratched the back of his head shyly then, letting out a long string of noise as he crinkled his nose. 

“I… um,” he started, “I just wanted to say you can stay over at my house. Please do! I already asked my parents and they are fine with it.”

You licked your lower lip, surprised but also very appreciative of his kind gesture. “It’s fine, Jisung.” You shook your head and waved your hands in front of your chest. “I wouldn’t want to bother you and your family.“

“They said it is fine though! I am okay with it too! It concerns me, even more, to think that you don’t have a place to go home to!” Jisung exclaimed animatedly, clapping his hands together and squeezing them tightly in a praying manner.

“You should be able to sleep at a house, you know? Not just a motel or something! Just come over, I already told my mom about it and I think she already made an extra portion for dinner so you _have_ to tag along.”

“She did?” You mumbled to yourself.

“Yeah! You bet she did!” Jisung nodded with a hearty smile. “She is tired of seeing my old friends over all the time, anyway. She is probably delighted to see me bringing someone else.”

“I mean…” you gave him a doubtful expression as you spoke, your voice timid as ever, “Are you sure?”

“Yes! Don’t even worry about it,” he urged with a grin. His hand went up to give your arm a playful shove forward before guiding you out the gate with him. “Come on, let’s go.”

Pulling out his phone from his pocket, Jisung discreetly sent a text to his mother to inform her of the unscheduled plan. You would possibly break his lie by the time you guys arrived at his home, but he supposed anything is worth giving you a warm bed to sleep on and some nice homemade meal to eat.

* * *

Pressing against the bones of your fingers, you awkwardly scanned the living room of Jisung’s home after sitting down on the couch. It was nothing special, you thought, it was a standard apartment home. It was definitely smaller than the house you used to live in, though, but you had no plans to complain that thought out loud.

Jisung’s parents were as kind as you imagined people ought to be but were often ill-equipped to do so. Without asking any questions, they already welcomed you into their home with a homemade meal and accepted the request of letting you stay the night.

On a certain level, you did think that their behavior was incautious and stupid, but it would only make sense that they didn’t think to suspect someone who is a friend of their child. Besides, they not being suspicious totally worked in your favor.

“(Name)!”

You looked up at Jisung and blinked hazily. “What?”

“You are zoning out again. Are you tired?” He asked, tilting his head to the side as a worried pout formed on his lips, causing his cheeks to inflate adorably.

You were. Completely drained, too. Having dinner with Jisung and his parents was like a literal train-wreck for you. Their energy was just too much for you to handle; you could barely get a five-second-silence before someone starts another conversation again. 

And, of course, that would be another thing you’ve got concealed inside within the depths of your mind and it will never be let out to the world.

“No, not really,” you shook your head, offering him an assuring smile as you touched your hands together. You looked around the living room again, your eyes pausing one second too long at the kitchen where his parents were located. You gulped. “I just… I feel a little weird since it is the first time I’ve been here.”

Jisung let out a soft snort in disbelief. “Yeah, my parents have that weird effect on people.” He flicked his wrist and did a shooing gesture with his hand, his actions dismissive. When he quieted himself down, he cleared his throat and suggested, “We can head to my room if you feel weird. You would probably feel a bit better in there.”

“Thanks, Jisung, but I think I will pass,” you mumbled, turning over to grab a cushion from the couch. “I am going to sleep on here tonight anyway.”

“Who said that?” Jisung asked, genuinely confused at your statement. He glanced over at his parents as if that would give him an answer, then he turned his head to the hallway where his room was located as if he could see through the walls and calculate the size of his room. 

He hummed thoughtfully before saying, “We don’t have an extra room but who cares. You can sleep in my room.”

“You have two beds in your room?” You asked, brow furrowed.

He shook his head. “No, but I can get several blankets and sleep on the floor.”

Ah. What a selfless gesture. It warmed your heart up more than anything else to know that he has already considered lending you his bed. However, it was nothing you wanted to accept after knowing that he would have to lay on the cold, hard ground for the rest of the night. You smiled disapprovingly at him as you shook your head, and the way Jisung let out a whining noise made you chuckle.

“Which one is better, Jisung? Both of us sleeping on a soft surface or one of us sleeping on a bed while the other on the floor?” You raised a dilemma, which was hardly one, technically speaking.

Jisung shrugged, “You sleeping on a soft surface.”

“But I want you to sleep on a bed,” you pointed out, “It is your bed, not mine.”

“Yeah, so I make the decision and I say you sleep on it tonight,” Jisung said as a matter of factly, his thumb jabbing towards the direction of his room as he did so for maximum persuasion effect. 

It was not working at all but you thought it was funny seeing him so worked up over this. “Look, it is either that or we are sharing the bed.”

You gave him a couple of seconds to process what just came out of his mouth. And when he did, recognition flew before his eyes and he pursed his lips together to prevent himself from screaming bloody murder. To mask his embarrassment, he cleared his throat and immediately put up a brave face.

Throwing his arms up, he exclaimed, “What? There is nothing bad about sleeping on a bed together! We are both sleeping, our brain functions are down, we can’t feel anything!”

“You watch too many dramas,” you said, your tone hiding an element of tease in it that Jisung would much rather not ask about just in case you retort him with something flustering again.

Giving up on a verbal argument (because as everybody could see, he was not winning it), Jisung acted upon a different approach. He leaned down to tug at your hand, pulling at your wrist with a delicate touch. His fingers barely grazed past your skin the first time he tried to pull you up, then they finally gained the courage to hold onto you so he could at least hold your arm up.

“Come on, (Name),” Jisung coaxed with a deeper, softer voice as he would use to a sleepy child he tucked into bed. He shook your arm lightly. “I promise my room and my bed are clean. Come on. I am not letting you sleep on the couch tonight.”

You glared up at him again but your gaze had less harmful effect than it was intended. Jisung knew you didn’t mean half the frowns you flash him, or at anybody. It was just a default expression of yours, he concluded, and there was no need for him to feel too worked up about the times you would give him a look of utter disappointment or more frequently, annoyance.

Still tugging at your hand, Jisung pushed on, “It’s fine. I sleep on the ground all the time. Besides, like I said, my brain functions are down so I won’t be able to feel uncomfortable at all.”

Wow. If he cared enough to say that stupid shit, it did seem a little overboard if you reject his offer.

You rolled your eyes at his words, finally standing up to comply with his request. Jisung was taken back when you stood up—and abruptly so—as he hadn’t really been the farthest away from the couch and, well, you. 

The second you did so, he turned his face away to avoid having to feel your breath on his face, which he knew would have made him a blushing, daydreaming mess as soon as you were out of sight and he was left to his own devices.

“Your logic needs some help,” you muttered lowly after you stood up, and having completely disregarded Jisung’s expression, you had spoken right at the skin of his jaw anyway.

Clenching it tightly, Jisung quickly took a step away from you and cleared his throat. “Um… uh… yeah! Great! Yay! You are–yeah, okay.”

“Are you celebrating the fact that your logic needs help?” You asked, raising an eyebrow at him suspiciously. “You are acting weird, Jisung.”

Oh, he was so glad you noticed. Pretty sure Jisung noticed his irregular heartbeat and the sensitivity of his neck too but tell him straightaway anyway. Suppose that would totally help.

“I am getting a little tired, that is all.” Jisung laughed. “Um… my room is just down the hall on the left, the first door. You can’t miss it. The second door leads to the bathroom and you can take a shower first if you want.”

You sucked in a breath. It was finally your turn to feel awkward. It would be pretty questionable if Jisung sees you walking out of the shower wearing the same thing as you did today and a couple of days before. 

You have only gotten yourself a few needed pieces of clothing to switch them between days, and none of them looked remotely like a standard set of pajamas, unfortunately.

“Do you think you can… lend me something… to wear?” You asked, your voice gradually decreasing. “Just a shirt, a shirt is fine.”

“Do you not have anything to wear? You have never changed out of these before?” Jisung widened his eyes, having gotten over the previous embarrassment rather quickly.

You did. You use time magic to reverse the dirt and damage until your clothes were back to being brand-new. It would be an easy concept to explain if you were talking to a fellow magic-user, but Jisung wasn’t one. 

And even if he does accept your kind, which you were still clueless about, he would be the type to ask an array of weird questions you wouldn’t know if you’d hate or like.

“There is this lady who owns a small clothing store and she lends me clothes sometimes,” you lied. “As long as I clean it and return it to her, she is okay with it. But, um, I didn’t exactly get to ask for a new change of clothes today.”

Jisung stared at you. You felt your heart speed up at the process of him analyzing your features despite knowing he probably does not know how to detect a liar simply by their facial expressions, not to mention you weren’t so bad a liar yourself. 

Thankfully, he was quick to release a sheepish smile, adding with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Aww, she is so nice! I am glad you found someone who could help!” He beamed, “But yes, I can lend you something to wear. How about you pick something! I have a lot of shirts!”

“Is that really necessary?”

“No, but I think that would be fun.” He shrugged with a silly smile, then he frowned. “And also because I am indecisive. I want to pick something nice, but I have a lot of nice clothes.”

It wasn’t that serious, and Jisung knew. He was not sure what had gotten over him all of a sudden—just the pure idea of you wearing something of his gave him a rather interesting feeling. He would not hate to see it happen, that was all.

“Oh, just grab me something,” you groaned out while stepping aside to shove past him, “I really need to take a shower.”

“Oh, okay!” Jisung said, grinning. “Don’t use up the hot water.”

Watching as you held up your arm in acknowledgment, Jisung finally let his shoulder relax. He found himself staring at the ground as the clock ticked away, his mind reaching back to the conversation you two just shared. 

It was all fine and normal until the fantasy dropped and he was thinking about your breath on his skin again.

Oh, there it was, as expected! The pink blush and the nonsensical daydream have finally appeared.

* * *

You were fast asleep on the blankets when Jisung finished taking his shower. A slight confusion blurred his senses when he opened the door to his room to find you nowhere to be found. 

It was until he cast his gaze downwards when he found that you had betrayed his decision and took the opportunity to lay yourself on the floor anyway.

He sighed. Why couldn’t you just sleep on the bed, why was that so hard for you? He reached over to the light switch by the door to turn the bright lights off. The room went dark temporarily before it was illuminated again when Jisung approached his desk to turn on the table lamp.

His eyes glanced past the opened textbook on the wooden surface and dread filled him instantly, the idea of having to spend another several hour trying to pry his eyes open just to study consuming him.

Throwing the object a grimace, he pulled off his towel from around his neck and draped it over the back of his chair before turning around. He sighed at the sight of you. He supposed he could always just move you back on his bed, it should not be that hard of a task. 

Finally making up his mind, he carefully made his way over to the floor and he knelt next to your figure.

His eyes trailed past your features and his thoughtful gaze lingered on your face for longer than intended, curiously studying your features. Your face was pulled into a neutral expression, and Jisung found it relieving that you seem less angry than you do when you are awake. At least you are peaceful in dreams; some people can’t be and it is truly tragic.

Shaking his head to pull himself out of his trance, Jisung breathed out a puff of soft air to calm his unnerving heart and to feel less shy about the fact that he just spent a good minute staring at your sleeping face. It was an all too familiar feeling, the pumping heart and the pink cheeks. It has happened to him time after time throughout his life. 

But Jisung didn’t quite want to fully devote himself to a small crush yet, he still believed the irregular feeling would fade away soon.

“Oh, shut up,” he told himself under his breath and trembled in annoyance. 

Then, as he was about to move his hands carefully underneath you so he could hoist you up, his eyes were once again caught by the sight of the strings on your arm. Unlike today, they were green instead of red. The compelling emerald green shone despite the lack of light in the room, and Jisung unconsciously reached his hand out to touch it.

You jolted away at the force that suddenly blasted from your arm. Knowing very well that it was the explosion spell you recently chanted going off, you quickly scanned your surroundings to look for any potential harm. 

Jisung’s room came into view, much to your confusion, and nothing was wrong aside from the fact that the books from his shelf had fallen off and Jisung was lying on the ground with a pained expression on his face.

“Oh, shit–Jisung!” You scrambled up, touching the green on your arm instinctively. The material was slightly slashed, indicating that it had just been used. 

Eyebrows furrowing, you immediately deactivated the magic with a wave of your hands and pulled the strings off. When they fell to the floor, you turned your attention back to Jisung, who most likely had just endured a wind blast to his body.

“(Name)! You really–“ Jisung groaned as he sat up, coughs erupting from his throat at the impact he suffered from his lungs. His arm reached behind him to knock at his back a few times to overpower the pain before he glanced up at you through his bangs. The strings on your arms were gone, thankfully.

He looked less than angry, more betrayed than frustrated. His eyes questioningly demanding; you could tell he would be pestering you for answers until you give it to him this time, he has changed his mind about playing around and letting you brush matters off. 

You breathed heavily, feeling intimidated at the way he was staring at you.

“Are–are you okay…?” You asked despite knowing the answer.

“Yeah, sure. This is not the first time you have thrown me to the ground,” Jisung muttered, finally deciding to stand up. His posture was rigid, making him appear just a tad bit larger than he was. And when he ran a hand through his hair, he clenched his jaw in irritation and he arched an eyebrow at you. “You, though, not so much.”

He paused for a second.

“Are you sure they are just bracelets, (Name)?”

* * *

Seconds ticked by as you and Jisung stared at each other; him with determination and you with anxiety. He was watching your every move, or at least it felt like he was observing every churn of your body muscle. 

It almost felt as if he had already predicted your backup plans and was ready to strike out a solution at any given moment. And if he noticed the way your hands were trembling, he had chosen to give you the time to deal with it instead of butting in.

What could you do, (Name)? You have dealt with so many problems on your own before. You have managed to sneak out of your home and leave the city you once resided in without leaving a single trail, managed to create yourself a brand new identity and conceal your magic, managed to go several years without a shelter over your head.

You got over so many things, including letting people know your magic and the act of memory erasure, so why did your head suddenly start stumping just because this time, it involved Han Jisung?

You looked up at him, your eyes wide and glittery as though there were tears of concern withering underneath them. Jisung softened at your vulnerable state and it almost compelled him to drop the matter altogether. But you had thrown him over the edge of a gate and blasted him across his own bedroom, and you have dead parents and no home. 

Those were hardly daily news to him and he would never forgive himself if he does not take the opportunity now to get an explanation.

“I am your friend, (Name),” he whispered, his eyes wide with sincerity.

Right. He is your friend, and just that simple fact made everything so much harder for you to disclose. You were juggling this friendship at the tip of your fingers, uncertainty floating everywhere. The idea of him slipping away was haunting, the idea of your dropping back to where you begin was haunting.

“You can tell me,” he persuaded, not stepping over to you yet but simply choosing to use verbal comfort. “I can help you. Let me help you.”

You let out a strained noise at the back of your throat. He was talking like you have major problems going on in your life, which you have been, you just haven’t gotten to time to realize it. As time goes by you have gotten used to how your life has turned out, and now the bad became normal to you. 

Your dead family, your empty home, the city council, the fearing of authority, the pressure of early maturation, the loneliness—they all suddenly started to fill your head up like a storm; twisting and swirling to destroy all that was left inside of you. It was like everything was coming back to you at once, forcing you to remember and to reminisce.

Jisung held back a gasp when you glared at him. Your eyes were teary but no tears fall, and he somehow knew that the anger burning within was not directed at him. He was baffled, for sure. He had never seen you on the verge of tears before. But he was more empathetic than surprised. He wondered how much you have really been through in your past, how much you had to endure on your own and he never knew of.

“Jisung…” your voice was small as you finally spoke, but he heard you and he replied. When you looked at him, you gulped. “I don’t know where to start.”

Finding the right words to describe your childhood timeline should be easy since everything had happened for a reason, and one thing led to another. But you did not know where to begin, somehow. 

It was an organized mess with too many events and too many repressed emotions for you to explain it like a glorified story.

“That’s fine, I got you,” he said with a quick nod. Finally approaching you, he gently tugged at your hand and pulled you to the edge of his bed where you both sat down. He hummed for a little, having to gather his questions first before he asked, “Let us start easy. I don’t need that much detail but can you tell me about the strings on your hands?”

“Yeah,” you said after a sigh. “They are–”

“Magic?” Jisung looked at you, his tone was more serious than you have ever heard him. When you gave him a shocked expression, he shrugged. “It isn’t that vague. You threw me over the school gate, which is tall as hell. And you just sent me flying across the room in your sleep. I wouldn’t believe you now if you try to tell me otherwise.”

You pursed your lips together. The determination in his eyes was familiar to you, yet they felt so vague and confusing. You feared what the burning was for. Was it the intention to hate and expose you? Or was it to accept and understand you? The question lingered but you kept it inside.

“Yeah, they are magic,” you muttered, rubbing your wrist in a circular motion, “I was born into a magic household and I used to live in a more magic-populated city before escaping over here to Seoul.”

Jisung raised an eyebrow and he asked, “What are you escaping from?”

“Like I said, it is a very long story,” you informed. Not much hoping that Jisung would choose to back down and let the matter drop. It was more so to give him a fair warning that he was about to take a deep dive into your childhood and everything that led you up to this point. 

Glancing up at him, you took a deep breath to calm yourself too when you saw that he seemed ready and steady to listen.

“My city has two councils. The one we are focusing on is the one that pertains to people like us. I was never too sure what it is that they do, I just know that my family members have always held high power within the group because of the unique magic our family use,” you explained, rubbing your hands to calm your nerves.

“A new batch of councilmen is selected whenever the current ones turn too old for the job, there isn’t a set interval like the government system you guys have. And, like I said, due to my family’s history with working in the council, our family member will likely be elected during each election.”

Jisung was nodding along as you spoke. He listened carefully to everything you said. How the last election was no different than the rest and how your father was supposed to be the next in line. 

Up until that point, a sense of dread had started to paint over his face gradually. He could almost predict how things would unfold for you and he was devastated.

“The election ceremony happened at night. I was not told any gory detail of what exactly went down. I just heard that there was a blackout and when the lights came back up, my entire family was gone. Dead, if not dead then injured,” you said, your voice trembling and your brows furrowing as you tried to remember. 

It felt like there was a knot clogging in your throat and it was taking you too much effort to speak.

“The injured ones were all rushed to the hospital, but only my uncle managed to come out alive. He has been in a coma ever since.”

Jisung wanted to comment on the event but he clasped his mouth shut instead. He didn’t know what to say. Nothing felt appropriate at the moment, not even a simple ‘I am sorry for what happened’ because it _did_ happen, it was terrible, and an overused, sympathetic line would not suffice for anything.

“The family of each elected candidate is supposed to attend that ceremony, but I couldn’t because I got the flu that day. People like to tell me I got lucky that I wasn’t there,” you glanced down at your hands, where you squeezed your nailed to the skin of your palm as a sore laugh left your throat. “But you know… sometimes, I kind of wish I had been there.”

What was it like, he wondered. What was it like to receive that many death news in one goes? Were you too sick to comprehend it at that time? Had you been sleeping the night away, only to wake up and find out you’ve been isolated from the world completely? Were you lucky to have slipped away from death’s grip or were you unlucky to have lost everyone you’ve loved at such a young age?

“Since everyone was dead and the only person who could replace my father’s place was stuck in a long coma that I am not smart enough to reverse, I thought they would elect someone else,” you said, then you shook your head as a dissatisfied expression confused your face. 

“But they didn’t. They waited a few years until I turned ten, then they started to force me to learn about everything the council stands for.”

Jisung furrowed his brows. “What about that? Is that bad?”

“I didn’t think so originally but I am slowly coming to an understanding now,” you told him, your tone gradually lowering as you started to glare at the empty air. “You see, my family has always done well in the council. It is so much easier for our family to gain trust from people because we rarely mess up. It is one of the reasons why one of us is always elected to be on the council.”

“But, with this sudden mess, the other households finally saw a chance of breaking the pattern, and that was through me.” You pointed at yourself. “Working with people so much older than me and who has more knowledge about the inner-workings of the council than I do, who is it to say that they won’t fuck me over? And if they _do_ successfully mess me up, my failure will inevitably lead to the downfall of my family’s reputation.”

Jisung’s jaw dropped in thoughts. He was piecing the information together now and, thankfully, it was much easier to understand than he expected it to, albeit definitely much more dramatic.

“Besides, I don’t even want to be in the council. The whole authority thing just doesn’t sit well with me, even if I am the one having it.” You shivered with a grimace. “But it doesn’t seem like I’ve got a choice. I tried my best to give them shit for trying to teach me anything but that was proven to be unsuccessful.”

It is for sure troublesome to have a child who is unwilling to obey, but it is even worse to have an adult who refuses to listen. Everything you did, including trying to straight-up ignore those who attempted to pamper you to be qualified enough, has gone completely unnoticed on purpose.

“Eventually, I decided to just pack my bags and leave for good,” you sighed, a troublesome pout forming on your lips. “It is hard for me to visit my uncle now. I haven’t seen him for some time. I doubt that he had woken up, though. I am pretty sure people are making sure he doesn’t wake up.”

Jisung clicked his tongue as if he was the one with an uncle laying on his almost death-bed. Just listening to the story was infuriating for him; if he had the power to beat those adults asses, he definitely would do it. Not just for you but for the greater good of the city those people have much control over as well.

You laughed at his scoff. “Yeah. me too. But it doesn’t matter much now. I am here, he is there. There is almost nothing I can do about the situation, I am just focusing on laying low and making sure I won’t have to run off somewhere else anytime sooner.“

Jisung fiddled with his fingers. His head was hung low in thought, thinking about the possibility of you ever being discovered. He certainly wouldn’t hope for you to leave. Mostly because _he_ would want you to stay, that thought deriving from very friendly reasons. But also because he would love for you be to able to settle down somehow.

Find a home, perhaps. And find people who could and would take care of you; that was an important goal on the bucket list he made on your behalf too. Frowning a little, Jisung’s mind twinkled within the obscurity that if you permitted him, the boxes on the list would have long been checked off.

Things were pretty much out and clear now. At the very least, he thought he knew what he should know. Not that he wouldn’t dig deeper into your traumatic childhood experiences, he most definitely would like the share the burden a little if allowed, but the night felt a little full already and he didn’t feel like adding more pressure to it anymore.

"Okay,” he responded quietly to accommodate the night time. ”Thank you for telling me everything.“

"You are welcome,” you offered him a faint and unsure smile.

Jisung was taking things too well for your expectations, and you have told him a lot more than what you have told previous people. You only used to talk about your magic, never about your family. No one was ever interested in your family. 

Pursing your lips, there came a thought that maybe Jisung is different than everybody else. From the way he reacted to your story, to the way you always feel this strong magnetic pull towards him.

“(Name)?” Jisung called, tilting his head to the side questioningly. When you looked at him, he asked, “Are you feeling okay? Do you want to go to bed?”

“I’m fine, it’s just… I didn’t tell you anything about the strings, actually,“ you muttered. "Just thought you might want to know.”

Jisung laughed after a moment, his eyes widening in realization. You had branched off from his initial question and he forgot what he asked because of the intensity of the information dump. Grinning at you, he shrugged with a dismissive wave, “You can tell me tomorrow! Just go to sleep, _on_ the bed. Sleep on the bed.”

You gave him a furrow of your brows as protest, and you tilted your head when he stubbornly held your gaze.

“Okay, fine,” you finally rolled your eyes, turning around to adjust the pillow on the bed so you could lie down after Jisung left for his desk.

Covering yourself with the blanket, you felt a rush of fluff drowning down your chest. The warmth and the softness of this little cocoon you’ve created was none that you’d ever thought you could have again. You pulled at the hem until it reached your shoulders, and you peered over at Jisung slightly.

The lamp illuminated his back, almost as if casting a natural glow around his heavenly self. Your heart slowed down at the peaceful sight and you fidgeted with your mind to check whether you wanted to say something.

“Um… Jisung?”

He turned at your timid voice, brows raised in concern, “Yeah?”

“Thank you for not being weird about this,” you said.

Jisung softened, his grip on the pencil lightening up and the eraser tip tapped against his textbook. Whatever has left you with the impression that you needed to thank people for not acting out on a life you didn’t choose to live, he wished you had never needed to go through that again. 

And all that life has thrown at you by far, he wished you never had to go through that again either.

“Yeah, of course,” he replied with a mutter. You gave him faint snores as a response and Jisung breathed out a short laugh of relief. He left the blessing of good night sleep for the dimming of his lamp and the fact that he would be just a few steps away if anything is to happen.

* * *

Jisung was too tried to throw a hissy fit early in the morning when he found out you stuck him back onto his bed and slept on the floor with a thin sheet of blanket anyway.

When he was called to wake up in the morning, he had happily urged you to fresh up in the bathroom first just so he could extra an extra five minutes to sleep. The appalled expression on his face was priceless when it only took you roughly one minute—or what Jisung felt to be ten seconds—to clean yourself up for the morning.

“Come on, Jisung,” you said as you tugged at the bedsheet that he had pulled over his face. “I don’t want to have to haul you over the school gate again, and I cannot guarantee that I won’t throw you too harshly again this time.”

He whined from under the blanket, his voice muffled as he pulled harder at the blanket in refusal. It was a game of tug of war, one that you knew if you tried, you would definitely win. 

All you needed was one strand of red string. But you decided to humor him a little, your hands still pulling gently at the fabric as Jisung stubbornly wrapped his legs around it to keep you from removing the warmth.

“Alright, I warned you.” You let go of the blanket after allowing him a minute to be childish about going to school. Stepping away from his bed, you moved over to the corner of the floor and grabbed your backpack. You headed to the door and looked behind your shoulder at him, sighing. 

“I have a shift in the morning so I’m leaving now. Thanks for letting me stay the night, Jisung.”

Jisung furrowed his brow. The farewell was too sudden, he wanted to think you were just bluffing to make him wake up. Yet, when he was piecing the puzzle together, what you said was not only within your character, it also made sense. You did seem like the type to leave with a short announcement, and if you weren’t attending schools then you would have work to sustain yourself.

He peeked an eye over the blanket to see if you were standing in his room, and a part of him jumped to find an empty room. Trailing his eyes to the side, your bag was also gone from where it laid yesterday night. 

With widened eyes, Jisung quickly sat upon his bed, flipping his blanket over to the side in the process.

Panic rose in his chest; he needed to catch up with you! Who was to say you wouldn’t ghost him for another week after you leave?

“Shit–hold on, (Name)!” He swung the door open, planning on heading out to the living room to see if you were still in his home. But he came to an abrupt stop when he found you standing right outside his room with a deadpan expression on your face.

“Good, you are finally awake,” you muttered as you removed your backpack from your forearm and swung it over your shoulders to wear.

Taking your action as an incentive to leave, Jisung was quick to take a step closer to you and grabbing ahold of your arm, his eyes rounding innocently as he spoke. His voice came out low and raspy so he cleared his throat before he spoke again, “Wa–wait, you are staying for breakfast, right? And then we are going to school together?”

Shrugging his hand off, you gave him a grimace. “Yeah. Your mom already made me breakfast outside so I kind of have to stay for that,” you pointed out, looking towards the door that would lead you directly to the living room. “But it doesn’t take me that long to eat so if you aren’t ready by the time I finish my bowl of rice, I am going to leave first.”

“I’ll be quick, I promise!” He exclaimed. “Just don’t leave without me, okay?”

You pursed your lips in defeat, a faint eye-roll struggling to surface. “Okay. Just hurry up, I have work.”

The relieved smile Jisung showed you only made your grimace widen. 

God, this boy was infuriating at best without even trying to be so, and none of why you felt that way was his fault. As cheesy and corny as it sounded, he was different than others, drastically different that you were unsure how to react to him sometimes.

Until this point, you still could not understand why he was so hell-bent on befriending you. He has practically done all that he could, hasn’t he? He refused to leave you alone, he put a shelter over your head, and now he was making sure he gets to spend his entire morning with you as well. 

And no matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t wrap your head around why he wanted to spend all that effort for you.

The idea of you exuding any appeal was unfathomable so that reason was immediately thrown out. Could it possibly be the magnetic feeling you felt with him? Did he feel it as well, that intriguing pull akin to faint electricity dancing across your skin whenever you two are near each other?

“You’re so weird, Jisung,” you commented under your breath. When he threw you a questioning tilt of his head, you couldn’t help but huff out a curt laugh. “No one has ever gone this far to make sure I become friends with them before.”

“Well, they should!” He said, almost proudly. “I think you would make an incredible friend!”

You laughed, “Oh, great. I thought you would say something about me having magic.”

“Oh, yeah, that is pretty cool too.” Jisung smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck. He let his arm drop to his side after a moment, his eyes growing more sincere all of a sudden. He was looking at you intently, making sure he has your attention before he said, “But I think even if you don’t have magic, I’d still want to be your friend.”

Surely, he gained interest in you because you threw him over the gate and he wanted to find out how. But ultimately, it was your slip of the tongue about your parents that got his empathy up and running, not the magic. 

Plus, there was also this unnerving pull towards you that he felt. He could feel its presence wherever you were around like it was waiting to reveal itself.

You looked up at him, the glimmers in your eyes wavering at his words.

Jisung was different in a way that he shows you genuine affection and interest. He easily balanced out the magic part of you and the personal part of you, it was never only the magic part of you unlike how it has always been. He took all aspects of you to his heart and he held you carefully in his hands despite your many attempts to fall from the gaps of his fingers.

“You are making this too sentimental for me,” you commented monotonously, giving Jisung a smile so rigid and forced that even he started to feel a little awkward.

“You know how I get emotional, (Name),” he muttered funnily, his eyes squinting to mimic the way his heart was squeezed by your disappointing response to his touching words.

“I don’t know, Jisung.” You tightened the grip on your backpack straps, blinking at him with a small frown. “You see, we’ve only been friends for a couple of days and so far, only I spilled my childhood traumas.”

“Oh, no worries. I can spill all my childhood traumas to you if you want. I’ll get you spooked out about all the chocolate I’ve stolen from the cabinet.” Jisung said as he glanced down at his invisible watch. 

He looked back up at you then, feigning professionalism on his serious features. “Actually, I am free tonight at ten o’clock. We can have a background check session in my room before we call it a day, we have _much_ to talk about.”

“How about you finish your morning routine first? The clock is still ticking and you are still in your pajamas.” You poked his shoulder with a glare. “Like I said, hurry up or go to school on your own!”

Jisung turned around to glance at the clock on his wall and he yelped in shock. Brushing past you quickly, he headed to the bathroom and slammed the door. You sighed inwardly when you heard the lock click, then you slowly made your way to the living room with a mind filled with thoughts.

The day has barely started yet and he was already trying to make sure you would stay another night. You didn’t plan to stay another night, frankly speaking. No matter how agreeable he and his family were, you just could not get past the feeling of being a burden.

Your shoulders relaxed a bit when you realized you’ve got to think up a plan during the day; at least that would keep your mind off unfortunate people you would meet.

* * *

Jisung has not shut up once since you two left his house, and strangely, you didn’t mind one bit.

His curiosity was endless. Questions after questions left his lips, skipping not one beat of silence as he dumped words out of his mouth at a rapid speed; questions about where you stayed the night for this long, and if you have gotten any help from other people before, and where you work and how many jobs you have.

Most of the questions steamed from him simply wanting to dive headfirst into your life, while some other questions were him hoping to find more clues about your daily life so if you were to ever ghost him again, he would at least have a lead he could see through and attempt to track you down.

“How many jobs do you have exactly?” Jisung asked, his fingers outstretched in a counting manner. “You said you work part-time at a coffee shop, and then there is this boutique store right around the corner, and you help around with this old lady with her antique store during the weekends?”

“All of that, plus I work the night shift at a convenience store during the weekends,” you said, almost exasperatedly since no matter how many times you mentioned it, Jisung always seem to leave out the part where you work a night shift. “So I work three part-time jobs and I sometimes help out at the antique store.”

“Do you have to work there? It’s so dangerous.” He frowned.

“You’re telling me it’s dangerous like I didn’t blast you across the room last night even when I was asleep,” you said pointedly, rubbing your hands together and wiggling your fingers to remind him that you will always have the magic to spare.

When his worried frown didn’t disappear, you relaxed your shoulders in a softening manner and you sighed. “I’ve never gotten into trouble before. The worst case I’ve had were a couple of drunkards but I can put them to sleep easily.”

“I’m just worried, that’s all,” Jisung said quietly as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, a gesture that mimics a hug for himself.

“You don’t have to, I can handle myself well,” you reassured him.

“I can’t help it,” he exclaimed with a pout, wanting to explain to you the unreasonable intrigue he felt towards you but also did not want to come off weird (by his standards, at least). 

He was still so sure it was just a crush, a really strong crush; it would be better not to voice it into existence yet until he’s got his feeling settled. “It just makes me feel safer knowing you’re home at night.”

You looked away from him, a faint smile appearing on your lips. It was a heartwarming smile at first, something that derived from the way you shivered at his caring words. But your eyes quickly flickered their lights and turned your smile into something bitter, uncertainty erasing the flustered feeling in your chest with a snap of time. 

He talked as if you’ve got a home, which to him you probably do, but it couldn’t be one if you don’t feel comfortable being in it.

And while he and his family have been delightful to be around and they have been one of the nicest people you have ever encountered so far, while you do feel comfortable with Jisung, you couldn’t get past the cost, the unfamiliarity of people going out of their way to be so nice to you.

Jisung noticed the way your expression morphed into a somewhat pained, untrusting turn. He bit his lower lip and decided to reach out so he could tug at your sleeve to get your attention. He glanced down at the ground to avoid meeting your eyes when you turned to him, his fingers fiddling with each other nervously.

“I know I told you this already but I want to tell you that it’s okay again,” he said, the tension in his gaze building up like fire added with fuel when he finally met eyes with you. He has a pout in his voice but he still sounded serious, nonetheless. “You have a home with me, I want you to know that.”

You gulped. “We barely know each other.”

“If everyone thought like that then friendships won’t exist, (Name),” he retorted.

“It’s different when you let strangers stay over at your house,” you smiled with a pinch to his cheek.

“But we’re not strangers,” Jisung said, catching up with you when you started to walk away. “We’re friends. You helped me even when you didn’t need to!”

“That’s because I know helping you won’t cost me anything,” you responded. “You, on the other hand, are too trusting and unnecessarily nice to people.”

Jisung gasped in disagreement. His energetic energy started to bounce off of his movement as his legs began to stomp and his fists curled in front of his chest in a pumping motion. 

“It is not unnecessary!” He exclaimed, stepping in front of you and causing your steps to halt for a moment. He let out a whine of protest when you gently shoved him to the side by poking your finger to his forehead. “I’m telling you, (Name)! What was I supposed to do, let you roam around the street for the night and sleep on a tree?”

“On second thought, sleeping on a tree might be quieter than hearing you cry about your Math homework every five minutes,” you said.

His cheeks pinked up at your words. “Oh… sorry about that, I have a habit of being loud when I’m doing homework,” he said, then he exclaimed to jump back onto the topic at hand. “Anyway! My point is that helping you was absolutely necessary.”

You rolled your eyes. “You’re too nice, Jisung.”

“And that is bad, why?”

“Your kindness is going to get you killed.”

“First of all, dramatic,” Jisung said, moving ahead of you and stopping in his tracks when you two finally approached the end of the bus-stop line. He spun gracefully to face you, his eyes innocent as doves as he shrugged. “Second of all, if I am going to go down then I’d rather go down as a decent person than an asshole.”

You sighed. Supposed it was great that he grew up in an environment where he could afford to think that way; if he was even a little rougher around the edges then he might think differently, and a part of you was glad that he wasn’t. Looking past him instead of responding, your brows furrowed slightly at the line in front of you before you looked back up at him.

“What are we doing?” You asked.

“We are waiting for the bus,” he replied. “You don’t plan to walk to school, do you?”

You grimaced at him. How long has it been since you’ve last used any form of public transport? You couldn’t even remember. For so long, all you’ve done was teleport yourself to a remote area and walk towards your destination. 

It took some time for all the scouting and planning to make sure you never appear in public places out of thin air and raise suspicion but you managed, and since then you’ve been running your transportation on five purple strings.

Jisung raised a brow when you grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him away from the line. He tugged at you, his head flipping back and forth to glance at the line and you, strings of protests against your incredulous action leaving his lips in a frenzy.

“What are you doing? (Name), I thought you said we can’t be late! We have to go back in line! If it gets too long, we might have to wait for another one and it takes fifteen minutes for the second bus to–“

“Jisung.” You finally stopped after turning a corner into a remote area hidden behind concrete walls.

When he was finally quiet, you reached behind you for your bag and got your plastic board out. Jisung watched curiously as you unwrapped a small strand of purple string, pausing for a moment to look up at him before you generously pulled a few centimeters more off the board. You snapped it off with a harsh yank before shoving the board back into your bag.

“Waiting for the bus–yeah,” you scoffed with an eye-roll as you began to work on creating a pattern with your string, your delicate fingers poking through holes and knitting together a special symbol you learned back then from school. When you were done, you looked up at Jisung and raised your arm, motioning for him to go under.

He tilted his head to the side. “What?”

“Come inside, we’re teleporting and it’d be better if you hold onto me. The magic is going to wrap around me so I need you sandwiched in-between,” you said casually, reaching your arm higher. When Jisung didn’t budge, you sighed out loud. “It’s faster, Jisung.”

Oh, he knew that. He knew it would definitely be faster. He just hasn’t tried enough teleportation in his life to know if he would come out of it alive. There were plenty of errors he’s seen in movies about it before, such as being teleported right in front of a car or being sent off to some unknown place nobody can ever find.

Although those instances were all fiction and therefore, probably unlikely to happen in real life, it was still a part of his unshakeable childhood fear.

He’s gotta live through today to tell you all about the time he thought his mom died in a portal when he was around four!

“I’m not going to let you die, Jisung,” you said. “Come on, we don’t have all day.”

He groaned a little in dismay but ultimately complied with your request. Ducking under your arms, he stepped closer to you and waited for you to rest them on his shoulders. The embrace was loose but Jisung stood close enough to you for him to feel your breath on his face.

Flustered, Jisung kept his hands pressed to his abdomen just in case they wandered somewhere they weren’t supposed to. And he tried to glance away from your concentrated face, he tried to look at the wall standing in front of him, but his eyes kept reverting to you anyway.

You two stood so close, and he could feel the tug in his chest again when he was standing so close to you.

“Phasmatos Ianua Reclu.” You muttered under your breath and waited until you felt the tightness of the strings wrapped around your forearm. 

Bringing your hands to his back, you carefully brought Jisung closer to you for the sake of safety, ignoring the way your heartbeats mingled together in a way you couldn’t tell if it was his heart or yours that was beating so fast.

Jisung closed his eyes to brace for the impact that never came. It was just a quick swoosh of wind and then you two were slapped right in the middle of a different alleyway. 

When he opened his eyes to find that he could see his school building from just a few streets down, he let out a surprised squeal and turned to shake your shoulder.

You, having already been exposed to this for much of your life, attempted to calm him down while dragging him out of the alleyway so he could proceed with walking to school.

“Oh, that is so fun! I didn’t see anything but I still teleported!” Jisung beamed, clapping his hands together. “Can everyone do that? Or is it just you who can teleport?”

“Everyone can but we all use different methods,” you replied briefly before giving his forehead a flick. “What are you jumping for, Jisung? It’s not that big a deal.”

“I’m sorry but if you introduce free transportation to people, everyone is going to think it’s a big deal,” Jisung said.

“Just get a car then?”

“Who’s paying for the gas, (Name)?”

Jisung laughed hysterically when a look of realization hit you. God, you were so pulled away from the mortal reality that you couldn’t even remember the concept of needing to pay gas for a car. 

Come to think of it, if you couldn’t grasp the concept of that, how the hell did you manage to get paid? Did you create a bank account with the magic of compulsion or did you just went the easy way and persuaded the managers to pay you in cash?

Jisung has so many damn questions to ask you!

You scoffed at him and smacked his finger away from your face; great, you were probably not going to get out of that for a while. After that, the remaining journey simply consisted of Jisung teasingly asking you about normal, human things as if you haven’t been living the same way as everyone else for the past ten years and more.

A relieved sigh left you when you finally saw other students approaching from other streets and the sight of the school finally came into view. 

“Look! Your school is here, Jisung,” you said, pointing at the opened gate and stopping on your spot. You eyed him once, finding him unmoving on his spot as well, and you waved your hand towards the school’s direction. “Go, get out of here, leave me alone.”

Jisung frowned. “I thought you liked me, (Name).”

“You thought wrong,” you retorted with a smile.

He mumbled something under his breath, possibly something childish, then he brought his hand up to wave at you. “Fine, I’m leaving,” he mumbled. “Have fun at work.”

You hummed with a nod and returned the wave before turning around to leave the scene. But you only went so far when a hand clamped on your shoulder, forcing you to look at Jisung again. He was looking at you questioningly for a moment, his brows furrowed and his lips pursed troublesomely. 

You shifted the weight on your leg, giving him a look to prompt him to speak.

“You’re going to be here, right?” He asked timidly, scared of what you might answer and how he might not be able to convince you of otherwise. “When school ends, you are going to be here, right? And we can go home together?”

Oh, he was back on that again.

“Jisung.” His grimace deepened at your exhausted tone. You gulped; it was your turn to look at him with confusion. “Why are you so hell-bent on making sure I have a place to stay?”

He thought about asking you why it was so hard for you to accept help but he thought better about it. A retort might not be appreciated at the moment, he figured. What he needed to do was to appeal to you, and honesty has done its job time and time again when it came to you. Jisung gave you a faint shrug before he spoke.

“Because I like you, and I want you to have somewhere warm and safe you can stay in,” he confessed. “So you are going to be here when school ends, right? I’m not leaving school unless I am leaving with you.”

He was telling the truth. Not only could you see it from the reddening of his ears, but you could also hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. Jisung just genuinely wanted you to have a home, albeit it wasn’t with your biological family. 

He cared even though you’ve barely met each other yet; something you believed to be a fatal flaw and has tried so hard to keep yourself from doing.

It annoyed you so much. That gentle soul of his simply made him a much better human-being and so much more likable than you hoped he has to be. It annoyed you so much because you did end up liking Jisung a lot and you’d probably feel miserable without him rambling next to you again sometime today.

The tension in your muscles loosened and you softened upon his honest face. Reaching up, you brushed his bangs out of his eyes and you let your finger linger on his forehead for a moment before removing yourself. 

You smiled faintly at him. Supposed there could be another way for you to make it up to his family somehow.

“I’ll see you soon,” you told him.

And Jisung’s smile was wider than ever upon your response.

* * *

“Han Jisung!”

A lunchbox slammed itself down on the table, the tremor it created causing the bird that had landed itself in front of Jisung to fly away. He glanced up at the intruder and clicked his tongue when he found Hyunjin staring back down at him with an apologetic yet guiltless grin. 

Following suit behind him were Seungmin and Felix, one with a faintly annoyed expression while the latter held a natural smile.

“You scared the birdie away!” Jisung complained with a pout. “I was feeding it my sandwich.”

“Alright, I’m sorry,” Hyunjin sat down from across the boy. “Since when did you start playing around with birds anyway?”

“It just flew over and refused to leave so I thought it wanted my sandwich,” Jisung shrugged. “I peeled some of my bread for it and it was eating just fine until you decided to slam your lunchbox on the table, you damn brute.”

“Hyunjin was just excited today. He didn’t get the chance to talk to you during recess because he needed to finish his make-up test, but he has been dying to talk to you the whole day,” Seungmin mumbled when he finally approached the lunch table as well. 

He gently set his homemade bento box down and scooted onto the bench seat next to Jisung. Turning to the boy, he tilted his head. “Come to think of it, I am quite curious as well.”

“Curious about what?” Jisung questioned, taking a bite of his sandwich and munching on it as he took a look at his friends.

“We saw you arriving at school with a stranger today,” Felix finally joined the conversation, trying to balance the paper plate of food while picking balls of rice with his other hand.

Seungmin groaned when Felix approached the table and he quickly slid the boy a pair of chopsticks for him to use. Meanwhile, Jisung stayed rigid on his spot, unsure what his friends wanted him to tell them about you whilst their eyes focused on him with anticipation.

“What about it?” Jisung asked, taking another bite of his sandwich to occupy himself.

Hyunjin scoffed with a roll of his eyes. He moved away from the table briefly before leaning back in, his forearm placed on the edge to give him a more menacing vibe. Arching a brow at Jisung, he urged his friend to speak up. “Who are they? We didn’t know you have friends outside of us three!”

“Not to mistake that as us thinking we don’t want you to have friends outside of the three of us, of course,” Felix shrugged. “We’re just curious since you two walked to school together and all.”

“And they also did this!“ Hyunjin jumped up from his seat and reached over to Jisung. His finger tenderly tracing a line over his forehead before he smacked him over the eyes playfully, a laugh erupting through the table when Jisung swatted Hyunjin’s hand away with a frown.

Felix blinked from the side, his eyes wide and observant when he chimed in, “Oh! Your scar is gone, Jisung.”

Hyunjin hummed at Felix’s words. He hadn’t seen it just then because he was too busy trying to get Jisung riled up about you, but now that he took a closer look, he finally noticed the smooth surface on the side of Jisung’s forehead, where it was once a scar he gained from falling off the gate he tried to climb the other day.

Jisung reached up and pressed his fingers lightly against his skin, gasping lightly when he couldn’t feel the stinging pain anymore. “Oh yeah,” he breathed out a chuckle as he glanced down at the table. “My mom got me these medicinal cream from a facial shop. It healed me up quicker than I thought.”

As Hyunjin sat back down, he gave the boy a moment of relaxation before he looked at Jisung expectantly again. “So…” He started, “What is it? Friends? Crush? Lovers? Soulmates?”

Seungmin snorted, “Wow, the lineup gets worse.”

“How is soulmate the worst?” Felix furrowed his brows in disagreement.

“They’re worst in a way they don’t exist,” Seungmin shrugged as he replied. “There is no point in pinning over non-existent things.”

“How do you know they’re not real?” Felix retorted again, holding desperately onto the romantic concept.

Jisung laughed from the side, patting Seungmin on the shoulder when he saw the boy was about to throw another devastating truth at Felix. Not saying he didn’t believe in soulmates, he just wasn’t quite sure about it. 

Come to think about it, from what he knew, your family did have a history with strings. Perhaps you might know a thing or two about the red string of fate and he might be able to give Felix some solace about it.

“Don’t mind him, Seungmin,” Jisung said. “There is this college boy he is having a giant crush on in his tutoring center.”

“Really? What happened to the girl from your class?” Hyunjin asked in bewilderment, turning his attention to Felix then.

Seungmin heaved a defeated sigh. “It’s Felix, he probably likes them both right now.”

“They’re just crushes! Oh, what, I can’t have crushes now?” Felix said defensively, a mouthful of rice and spitting everywhere during this heated moment.

Seungmin grimaced at him and started to begin his daily distasteful scolding while Hyunjin chimed in from time to time just for the sake of getting Felix more flustered than he already was. Jisung laughed along at the side, feeling a little glad that he was able to divert the attention away from him and you.

Glancing down at his lap, he discreetly peeled a piece of bread from his sandwich and handed it to the bird that had quietly nudged its way back to him mid-conversation. As it pecked the crumbs of the bread off his palm, Jisung couldn’t help but let out a giggle.

“Did (Name) send you here or something? How are you so mellow?” He muttered under his breath before he laughed.

That would not be impossible, but he thought it’d be unlikely.

* * *

Felix glanced down at his phone and sighed before he shoved it back into his pocket. He glanced up at Jisung, his eyes softening at how Jisung kept glancing back and forth along the street. 

Felix had only planned to wait a while with him since he was quite curious about who you were as well, but they have been waiting for quite some time now and you still haven’t turned up yet.

“Jisung,” Felix called.

“Yeah?” Jisung looked behind him at his friend, his brows furrowed.

“Are you still waiting?” Felix asked, “It’s almost an hour.”

Jisung nodded. “Yeah. I told them I’m not leaving unless they show up.”

“Oh… well, I have to leave though,” Felix pointed behind him at the bus-stop far away. “I have to head to the tutoring center.”

“Yeah, of course! You should go,” Jisung urged then, waving his hand dismissively, “I can wait on my own!”

He didn’t watch Felix leave his side. A part of him didn’t plan for his friend to see him act all nervous and fidgety anyway, it was an uncommon sight even for him to be all sweaty and anxious like this. Not to mention how pathetic he felt when it dawned upon him that this tightness came from the simple thought of you backing out on your words.

His frown deepened as each seconds tick past and you were still nowhere to be found. He was seriously contemplating heading to where you left off this morning in hopes to see if he would stumble upon the shop you worked in somehow. But before he could get that idea established, he looked up from the ground and found you rushing towards him with an unamused expression.

Jisung breathed out a heavy sigh and straightened his back as you approached him quickly. He threw you a pout when you were within earshot, frustrated that it took you so long to arrive. 

“I thought you backed out,” he said. “What took you so long?”

“I had to stay behind for a little because someone didn’t show up today,” you replied. “I thought you knew? I told you not to wait for me.”

“When did you tell me?” Jisung asked incredulously.

“I sent you something! I sent you the bird!”

Oh, that _was_ you.

“(Name), I don’t understand birds!” He exclaimed, throwing his arms up in defeat.

“I strapped a note on it,” you muttered to yourself then, recalling your break during lunchtime when you clearly made sure you tied a ribbon around the little birdie before flying it off to the school. “Maybe it dropped my note somewhere.”

Jisung huffed out a hopeless laugh as he began walking, making sure you were following him and never going to quickly for your pace. “You know, people here don’t send birds, we use phones,” he commented. “You should probably invest in one.”

You grimaced, reaching to your pocket and pulling out an older modeled smartphone. You showed it to him and said, “I do have one.”

The look of betrayal Jisung flashed you was dramatic at best. He looked like you just told him you hate puppies and that you have purposefully run over a few with your nonexistence car.

You rolled your eyes at him, not really in the mood to deal with whatever stunt he planned to pull about you having a phone and not telling him so you just handed the device to him.

“Just add your number in,” you said.

He grinned as he snatched your phone away from your hand. You could hear his excruciatingly obnoxious typing sounds and you prayed for the screen of your old phone. Jisung gave his phone a call before he handed it back to you. 

You flipped it to check for your contacts. It wasn’t hard to find him; you only got a few essential numbers stored in your phone anyway. And when you saw the name he set for himself, you were quick to leave a frown on your face.

“Best friend Han?” You questioned, blinking at the red heart emoji sparkling next to his name.

“Mmhmm.” He nodded as he showed you his phone. “I put your name like that too.”

You looked at his phone, a fit of giggle bubbling up when you saw the same red heart next to your name. “Do you add hearts to everyone’s name or are you just weird when it comes to me?” You asked when he retreated his hand to look at his screen.

He puffed out his cheeks and let them stay jutted out with a pursed smile. He shook his head and said, “No, it’s just you. And it’s not weird, it’s…” his eyes rolled up to the sky and he thought for a while, “I don’t know what it is. I just felt like doing it.”

You laughed under your breath. That was a very Jisung thing to say; impulsive but somehow it worked out to his favor, and the impulsivity brought you solace due to how closely you related it to him. Putting your phone back into your pocket, you nodded at him as a simple response.

You two shared a moment of silence. For once Jisung chose to delay a topic of choice and instead to enjoy the laid-back sensation where both of you walked quietly down the street, presumably where the bus-stop was since you hadn’t raised the idea of teleporting both of you back to his home yet. 

And you, too, enjoyed not having to constantly think of something to say despite rather liking how chattery Jisung has been with you so far.

“So…” It took Jisung a while to clear his throat and break the silence. You perked up at his voice but didn’t turn to look at him. “How’s your day been? How is work?”

You were quick to shrug in response. “Normal. Nothing special happened, I just did my job and stayed away from people when I can.”

“That’s not very fun,” Jisung frowned. “You should at least try to befriend other people, you know? They might be able to help you down the line.”

“I don’t like asking for help,” you pointed out honestly, causing him to laugh.

“I know, I learned it the hard way,” he muttered to himself, faintly throwing a smile your way but you weren’t paying attention to him.

“What about you? I’m sure there is plenty of juicy drama circling a high school?” You asked after clicking your tongue in mild annoyance, turning the topic on him quickly.

“I’m not a very big rumor person so I don’t know anything about that,” Jisung said with an innocent shake of his head. He then slammed a fist to his palm upon thinking of what happened during lunch, and suddenly his excitement spiked. “Oh, my friends told me they saw us together this morning and they asked me about you!”

Your eyes widened in amusement as you looked over at him. You waved your hand and muttered, “What did you say? You didn’t say anything stupid, right?”

“Of course not, why would I do that–wait, hold on,” Jisung paused with squinted eyes. He looked at you, a weak finger pointing up at the sky. “Why do you care if I said something stupid? That’s not like you.”

You glared at him. “What if you spilled my secret?”

His jaw slowly dropped as he processed your words. The light came back into his eyes and he made a noise of acknowledgment, a silly grin appearing on his lips as he laughed out the embarrassment. 

He initially thought you cared because you might have fancied one of his all very attractive friends, and somehow the thought didn’t sit well with him.

“You should have some faith in me. I might talk a lot but I never spill any classified information,” he patted his chest to emphasize how trustworthy he is, a move that did nothing to convince you but he thought it was cool so he did it anyway. “But I didn’t say anything. They just kind of guessed who you were and I never responded.”

You snorted. “What does it look like we are? We’re friends.”

“Yeah, I think Hyunjin saw the hair brushing thing as evidence for something more intimidate,” he said. “He was all up my ass about it. He even guessed if we’re soulmates, and then Seungmin had a whole pessimistic debate with Felix and it’s just all messy!”

You laughed in bewilderment, not so much at what Seungmin and Felix did but more so at what his friend had suggested you two to be. Jisung was looking at you weirdly, waiting for you to explain your sudden laughing fit, and you gave him a quick shrug.

“I think I would know if we’re soulmates, Jisung,” you said, slapping your thigh and shaking your head. “Ahh, soulmates… that is hilarious. I will never understand why you people make such a big deal out of it.”

Jisung tilted his head to the side. His opinion on soulmates has always been neutral. It was certainly a romantic idea; to have one special person created just for you. 

Truth be told, Jisung secretly yearned for a love similar to the ideals that soulmates hold—a bond so strong that two people can feel each other constantly, an understanding so special that two people can tell what the other is feeling without the need for words; an unconditional love that lasts an eternity.

It was a great ideal, Jisung would love to experience it if he was given the chance to. But the idea of soulmates just didn’t feel too real to him. It could be, but so far he hasn’t been shown otherwise.

“People think it’s romantic,” he told you. “It’s also an out-of-reach idea, and people tend to go after unavailable things.”

“It’s not out-of-reach,” you said. “My kind can find their soulmate just by following their fate string.”

Your casual tone should not be paired up with words like those. Widening his eyes in surprise, Jisung turned to you quickly and he asked, “Wait–so it’s real? Like soulmates are an actual thing?”

“They are, everyone has a special person, Jisung. People aren’t creative enough to make up such a vivid concept, it came from somewhere,” you informed, crossing your hands in front of your chest. “But it’s not that big a deal, though. There are a lot of cases of soulmate reject.”

“Oh, I’ve seen those in stories before,” Jisung snapped his fingers.

“Good, so you aren’t one of those who believe soulmates have to love each other,” You muttered before looking up at him. “The red string just stores your feelings and memories for you. The stronger the feeling, the stronger the string is and the more magic it has. If you never create anything with your soulmate, it’s just a string.”

He nodded at the newfound information. How he wished he could tell Felix all about this, that freckled boy would be so energetic (and probably a little smug) to hear that soulmates are, in fact, a real thing. “You can store magic in your string?” Jisung asked suddenly then, trying to keep the conversation going.

You nodded at him. “Yeah, it’s so soulmates can help each other out in desperate situations. Magic needs to go through a certain medium, like how I have to use my strings to manifest my magic. When an emergency comes, your soulmate string will be your last resort. It’s never really used, though, since that requires breaking the string and transferring the magic.”

Jisung raised a brow and he asked, getting more and more intrigued with more information. “I suppose something bad happens if you break it?”

“I don’t think it’s too bad. The person who breaks the string will be forgotten by their soulmate, that’s all.” You shrugged. “Since the magic builds on your memories and feelings when you break the string, you just release everything and set them free.”

Jisung shivered. That took a dramatic and tragic turn. It would make an interesting story plot but knowing that it could happen in real life, the complete memory erasure, it made him feel an unknown sense of fear. 

Glancing at you, he blinked to himself as the thought of how you could have easily just erased yourself from him floated into his head.

He wondered why you never chose to do that even though you didn’t start out being fond of him at all. And he felt glad that you still haven’t tried to do that to him yet. He hoped you never would, it would be a shame to forget about you completely.

“Can you see who your soulmate is?” He suddenly asked, both wanting to break free from the negative thoughts and because he was curious.

You hummed a little, bringing your right hand up to your face and glaring at your pinky finger. The red tie slowly appeared in your sight and you scoffed. Never have you ever obsessed over such a trivial thing before, it had always just been a long strand of string to you and nothing more. 

Whoever was at the end of it likely never cared as well, since they never tried tugging at it.

“I can, I just never looked for them,” you said.

“Oh… can you see who my soulmate is?” Jisung asked then.

You rolled your eyes a little and turned to him with a faint groan. Reaching out to grab his hand, you held his finger gently and waited before the red knot appeared around his finger. You pinched the thin string carefully, your eyes widening in surprise when you saw the bright redness coursing through the lining of it.

“There is magic in here,” you said, shifting your gaze to Jisung. “You’ve met your soulmate already.”

“I have?” Jisung whispered out.

His heart picked up its pace suddenly at the knowledge that he has brushed shoulders with his soulmate before. His mind raced to check past all the faces he’s met and interacted with before and he tried to guess, as best as he could, who his soulmate could possibly be. 

This has just gotten exciting, the suspense was killing him slowly.

“I can try to pull at the string but if it gets too long, we’re not going to follow it to the end, alright?” You said, carefully grabbing a hold of his fate string with your fingers. Glancing up at him, you warned, “Don’t come crying if the universe made the wrong choice.”

Jisung nodded. He watched you intently as you continued to pull at the string, going at a fast pace until you abruptly came to a stop. With furrowed brows, he tilted his head and took a step closer to you, his voice urgent as he asked, “What is it?”

You blinked at your hand, the knot burning at your skin after you tugged what your own hand. Confusion clouded your mind for a second before it was replaced with disbelief, with refusal. You let go of Jisung’s hand and held onto your own, pinching your fate string instead and continued to pull at it.

Jisung stared at you with a troubled expression, concern etched on every part of his features as he watched you rapidly pulled on your soulmate string until all of a sudden, he felt a strong pull at his hand. 

He lurched forward towards you at the impact, his eyes widening in the process when his surrounding came to a halt and, faintly as the fateful magic creased up his skin, he could see bright red string floating around you both.

“Oh my god,” you whispered to yourself.

He glanced down at your hand and back up at your face, where you looked more shocked than ever. His mind finally understood why he got pulled forward and what the messy map of red string he briefly saw in the air when he got closer to you meant. 

This should explain the constant, special pull he felt towards you as well; those electrifying feelings he kept feeling when he was with you.

“Are you… are we soulmates?” Jisung asked, anticipation flooding into his brilliant eyes.

You gulped with a nod. “Yeah, we–we are.”

He broke into a slow smile then, his chest heaving in excitement. “That’s great then,” he said.

“It is?” You asked incredulously, a reaction Jisung wasn’t quite expecting but he was suddenly too fond of the idea of soulmates for him to nitpick at your less-than-happy expression.

“It is. I won’t have to come crying to you now,” he beamed. “Because I really like the universe’s choice.”

* * *

The ticking of the clock was getting rather annoying. You couldn’t sleep; it was not because of the clock, you just needed something to blame your insomnia on aside from that messy head of yours. Shifting your weight on Jisung’s bed, you turned to the other side and scooted closer to the edge. 

You peered down at the floor where Jisung slept, your hands unconsciously bringing the covers to your chin.

He slept in a curled-up position with a thin blanket draped over his small frame, giving you the false sense that he might be shivering from the cold night. Jisung was not a loud snorer; you could still hear his breathing from up on the bed but it was nothing too distracting. Not distracting enough for you to blame your lack of sleep on, at least.

Seeing him like this, so fragile and small, it made you feel guilty.

Slowly and surely, after deciding you needed a breather, you got off the bed and tip-toed your way out of his room, not before taking a long strand of blue string for yourself. 

Heading out to the living room, you quietly slid open the glass door that led to the balcony and stepped out onto the cold tiles. You sucked in a long breath as you propped your elbows on the fence, taking in the chilly air and letting them bruise your lungs like drugs and wine.

After finding out your soulmate ties, your first reaction had not been the best you could muster. You were usually so good at hiding emotions you thought would bring harm to others and thus, a disadvantage to you.

But the more time you spent with Jisung, the more he took away your default need to hide away. It has gotten to a point where when your first reaction of having him as your soulmate was fear, you just immediately showed it to him.

He didn’t show to be visibly upset about the way you seemed unsatisfied with the universe’s choice, all he did was smile and beam about the fact that he has you as a soulmate. 

Yet, even then, a part of you wondered if he was mad at you, or disappointed at least. Perhaps he was just doing as you usually would—hiding how he feels so he doesn’t ruin the mood.

Crazy how you two could do the same thing, but while you lied for yourself, Jisung lied for others.

That was just one of the many reasons that weighted down on why you didn’t want him as your soulmate. Your selfishness, your instinct to protect yourself over others, and so many more things about you. Your tendency to feel annoyed, your suspicion and insecurities, your lack of desire to experience human interactions, and so on.

You’ve created an uncountable list of negative traits you possessed within a short two hours of laying on Jisung’s bed because you needed something solid to think about, not just bits and pieces to why you absolutely do not deserve Han Jisung as your soulmate.

Standing straighter, you counted in your head the seconds you inhaled and tapped your finger against the vinyl rail to remind yourself you needed to release the air slowly.

Your heart calmed down but there was still an exhausting slump in your chest. Your eyes traced across the night sky and the bright buildings, the empty hair hitting your ears to show that despite all the people outside, you were ultimately alone within.

A shy tear rolled down your cheek and you huffed at yourself, reaching up to wipe it away as more rushed to your waterline in hopes to welcome their escape. You pursed your lips together and faced skyward at the ceiling, forcing down a shaky breath only to feel a croaked sob claw up your throat. 

Too much was going on in your head, starting from you revisiting your past for Jisung to you suspecting he was probably mad at you.

This was bad, really bad. After keeping your feelings on a down-low, you knew very well that once you break out of moderation, the tears would start flooding.

You should fly for a while, you urged yourself. You should just jump off and float for a little, the sky had always cradled you as one of its own, you would feel safer there.

Rubbing your eyes, you hoisted yourself on top of the balcony fence and balanced yourself so you could stand on top. The wind brushed against your body, Jisung’s thin shirt sticking closely to your skin and forcing you to feel the cold. 

You prepared your blue string in your hands and closed your eyes, trying to ignore the droplets that kept rolling down the corner of your eyes.

But it didn’t stop, it never stops. The pain just keeps going, possibly until exhaustion takes over you.

Your shoulders slumped with an exhale and you poked one foot out into the air. It was then when a hand harshly gripped at your ankle, yanking you back to the ground with a huge thud. Jisung scrambled across the ground, ignoring the pain that expelled from his back when he fell with you on top of him.

He couldn’t see straight, the vivid image of you standing on the balcony fence haunting his head. All he knew was that he needed to feel you in his arms, he needed to know he pulled you back from falling and that you were safe with him.

His arms fussed around the air, desperately searching for your form before he grabbed a fistful of your shirt and tugged you to his chest, hugging you with every ounce of strength he has.

The previous grogginess had long vanished. All he thought was that you woke up to get a glass of water, but you had been gone from his bed for too long to just be getting water. 

When he decided to leave his warm cocoon, all he could remember seeing was you tipping your leg forward into the sky and how it brought him a sense of panic he has never felt before.

It wasn’t the usual nervousness he felt, it was not the ones that would surface when it was his turn to do a presentation in front of a class or when his mother found a loop-hole in his array of lies about failing the Math test.

This felt like spikes growing from within his ribs, penetrating his body, and there was nothing he could do aside from waiting for the impending moment of his heart being pierced through. 

It was a genuine fear. The second he was introduced to the concept of losing you, all Jisung could feel was terror.

“What were you thinking?” He asked shakily, still pressing you close to him despite his arms aching from the overuse of muscles. “Wha–what the hell were you doing? You–you can’t do that.”

Your brows furrowed because you were unsure as to why he acted this way. But then it hit you that he probably wasn’t able to see the string across your fingers so his mind just aimed for the worst. You tried to pull away then, to give him an explanation that you knew how to fly, but Jisung refused to let you go as he whined out a panicked sob.

“No, don’t! Don–don’t,” he stuttered, burying his face to your shoulder as he so desperately needed to feel you with him; starting from your body to your scent, he had to latch onto you to calm himself down. “Please.”

You licked our lower lip in a troubled manner. Jisung was really agitated and it was not in his usual energetic way. You found it harder to deal with him when he was like this since it was an unfamiliar sight to you, therefore you opted for the most obvious way—you let him hold you until he feels better.

“Jisung, I’m not…” You exhaled carefully. “I’m not trying to do that. I actually know how to fly, I brought my string with me too.”

He calmed down at your voice, his mind processing your explanation with ease. You could feel his shoulders heaving slower now, but even then, it seemed like Jisung has no plan of letting you go anytime sooner. And you felt okay with that, you could stay where you were for a while longer.

“You don’t have to worry, I promise I am not trying to jump off,” you said with your hand on his head, patting him gently to ease him down further.

“Why… why aren’t you sleeping? It’s so late,” he asked with a muffled voice.

“I felt a little overwhelmed, Jisung. A lot of things happened recently and my life-style completely changed,” you replied. “I just came out to have a breath of fresh air… and to think about things, that is all.”

He sniffed, turning his face to press his cheek against your shoulder. You smiled at the softness of it, feeling wet tears staining your skin that made your own rush up to your eyes. You were sure Jisung was the first person to ever cry for you, and that thought touched you more than it baffled you.

“I’m sorry I acted all weird when I found out you are my soulmate, it was not my intention,” you confessed to him then, feeling the impulsive rush that you needed to do it now when the timing felt right. 

“I thought the universe made an incompetent choice and I just got a little mad. You have such a good heart, Jisung, and I think you deserve so much better than having me.”

Jisung narrowed his eyes, his breathing hitching in his throat. Disbelief riddled his senses—how dare you say that about yourself? You were such a strong individual to have continued even after what has happened to your family, and you have been so endearing to him with your hidden smiles and playful bickers.

You don’t even know how much Jisung adores your presence.

“I’m so sorry,” you apologized. “This is all my fault.”

“No… it isn’t, nothing is,” he mumbled slowly, shaking his head and finally deciding to pull away to look into your eyes. “You just had to find a way to release yourself, I’m not going to blame you for doing that.”

You pursed your lips, boldly holding his gaze.

“But please give me a heads up next time you do something like that. I love you and seeing that just then scared the hell out of me,” Jisung blurted out. And even when he saw how you reacted to his confession, he made no attempt to back down.

It was true, he was only being honest. Was it a little too early for him to say that? Perhaps, but what are standards when it comes to human affection, anyway?

There is none, there is never any standard. Love is blind in the face of time, it has always been. Sometimes you just have to shoot your shot and believe in yourself, trust that maybe you are in love with someone.

“Yeah, I said it. I love you, there I said it again! I love you, and… uhh. yeah! I love you!” Jisung declared, his eyes glimmering with affection when you started to giggle at his antics. A smile slowly moved up his lips as well, the force he had always felt in his chest magnifying as he looked at you fondly.

He has quieted down now, and when he spoke again, his voice came out as a whisper. “I don’t want any other soulmate but you.”

You didn’t know what to say. Words have never been your strong suit, especially when it was a reply to a confession, the sort that Jisung just made so shamelessly. Or screw that, confession has never been your strong suit! How were you supposed to react to someone who throws verbal affection at you? Laugh? Accept it with the same amount of love? You have not a single idea.

But his lashes were wet and there were faint trails of tears down his chubby cheeks. It warmed up a smile on your face, your heart feeling more cradled than ever at the sight of his vulnerability. Perhaps you were never too good with words, but Jisung would understand, and you felt it was okay to resort to the second best thing you could do.

The second best thing to show that your heart was filled and your loyalty was now tied not only to you but to him as well. Your hand moved up to his face and you stroked the dry line on his soft skin, causing Jisung to glance up at you in surprise.

Innocence filled the glimmer of his eyes while his mouth went agape at the unexpected action. He has only seen your gaze so celestial like this when you thought no one was looking; bright, loving, filled with the tender light of each star visible in the sky. 

And he squeezed his eyes tightly in one bashful swift when you leaned forward to plant a featherlight kiss on his brow, somewhere close to his temple and the corner of his eyes.

“Thank you,” you said after you pulled away.

Jisung’s eyes flickered around his surroundings, his cheeks fluttering with a nice pinkness your friendly kiss sent him. He hadn’t got the time to think properly, he could only remember how soft your lips felt and how, surely, the spikes in his chest has pierced through his heart already from that brief moment.

His heart will bleed for you, he just knows it.

“Of–of course…” He lowered his head, a wide smile hidden.

If it wasn’t for Jisung, you would probably be laying on a rooftop somewhere, stargazing freely and flying without a care in the world. It was good back then, you enjoyed the freedom.

Now, you could almost safely say you have a place to go back to. You have someone who would look out for you, someone who would cry for you, someone who sits under the night sky and hold your hand until you both get too tired. Now, you have Jisung.

It was good back then, and it was much better now.

* * *

“Wait, okay… so you loop your fingers through here…”

“Yeah, and then you just go under section five with your thumb and pull it all the way back to section one,” you instructed while demonstrating to him how you could make the symbol for a flight spell.

Jisung had suggested having you try riding the bus to school (or to work) after the many times of you teleporting you both there, leading to him having extra minutes of sleep. 

It was mainly because riding the bus could give him so much more time to spend with you, but he kept claiming that it was to make sure you get the full high school morning experience… whatever he meant by that.

It was half-way through the bus ride when he finally remembered to bring up the topic about your magic—how it works, where it came from, what kind of systems there are, and so much more curiosity exploding in his head.

“Do you know if your family is the only household that uses string magic?“ Jisung asked as he kept his focus on the pattern on his hands.

After a lot of convincing, he successfully got his hands on one of the strings you had stuffed in your bag.

While knowing that the magic would not work on him, since he wasn’t born with the blood to activate it, he still wanted to fulfill his curiosity and learn a thing or two about it. 

He also wanted to earn some bragging rights to his friends about knowing how to make such complicated patterns with just a simple string, but you didn’t need to know that.

“No, I am pretty sure there are other families that use string magic as well. My family wouldn’t run a string company if we are the only ones using it, ” you replied. “But I am sure that we are the only ones who use it the way we do.”

Jisung nodded. “So magic is basically divided into categories.”

“You can say that, yes,” you nodded, “so string magic is a whole category, with a lot of sub-categories that shows the different ways people use it. Each bloodline possesses a uniqueness to them that allows the person only one kind of magic, and–no, Jisung, you have to move your index finger over circle two in section three.”

The boy groaned faintly under his breath, the tip of his tongue poking out in concentration as he delicately moved his fingers in fear that he would make a mistake and cause the whole build-up to crumble. You beamed at him when he successfully mirrored the symbol on your hand, causing him to laugh in accomplishment.

“Finally!” He exclaimed, throwing his hands up due to the impulse of the moment. And as his face morphed into one of shocked, he quickly lowered his hands and made sure he did not ruin the pattern. “How fast can you usually do this?”

You looked at the green string around your fingers and hummed, tilting your head to the side. 

“Well, this is a more complicated symbol since this is a really big spell, so this will normally take me a second longer than usual,” you replied. “But for the easier spells, no more than a second. I practice a lot to make sure I’m one of the tops of my class before.”

Jisung gasped in awe, nodding his head in approval. What took him a full, twenty-minute journey to school to do could be done by you in under seconds! It made him feel proud, somehow, to know that you mastered such a complex skill.

“What is this spell for?” He asked, staring at it with intrigue as he wriggled his fingers, imagining how it would feel if he had the magic to use it.

“This is a healing spell. A very strong one, like giant gashes and bullet wounds,” you said.

“Oh…” Jisung nodded before he looked at you with furrowed brows. “Have you guys found the cure to cancer yet?”

“Jisung, we do magic, not miracles.” You rolled your eyes. “But maybe someday they will, who knows?”

“Maybe you will, these strings feel very trustworthy,” he joked, arching his brow at you as a bashful smile appeared on his face.

“Oh, please,” you sighed grimly, looking at your hands. After a moment of thought, you finally decided to let go of the patterned string. You stared at the shimmering line, the sun bouncing off the celestial lights printed on the material, and you felt your eyes glass over with nostalgia.

It looked just like the way it was when your parents first introduced you to it; it was such a shame that you could never look at the strings with the same amount of delight you used to anymore.

“I can’t even cure my uncle, not to mention cancer.” You shoved the string back into your pocket and crossed your arms.

It was a fatal flaw of yours, you knew. Magic is too diverse, you have not learned enough about other types of magic for you to fully understand how to defend yourself from it. 

An easy spell is still a unique spell; if you never learn in-depth about other categories of magic, you will have a hard time reversing it. Unfortunately, that was the case with your uncle.

Jisung frowned, his arms lowering in front of him at your dejected state. He still could not imagine, and he knew he never would be able to imagine how it feels to have to constantly worry about a bedridden loved one from across a city, one that was filled with people trying to exploit your life. Or just to have all the responsibilities fall on your shoulders because you were last in line.

He supposed he couldn’t have helped you any better, but sincerely, he wished that he could have at least been there for you. That he blamed it on the universe for messing up. How could it put you both in such different worlds but still tie your fate strings together? How dare the universe let his soulmate suffer so much without his presence there for moral support?

“I’m sorry I can’t help out with that,” Jisung muttered under his breath suddenly, gaining your full attention. His steps slowed and he looked over at you, a serious expression replacing his once goofy smile. “And I know this isn’t my fault, but I never got to say I’m sorry for not being able to be there for you when everything happened.”

It just made him feel so frustrated. You escaped your city years ago yet somehow, you two have never crossed paths before. He could have given you a home earlier, he could have helped shoulder your repressed emotions earlier. He could have done so many things for you, but he wasn’t able to and he didn’t.

And even though he was not at fault, he could not help but feel incompetent in some way. And he resented his past for not having you in it.

“Jisung, this isn’t your fault–“

“I know,” he cut you off, gulping down a knot, “I just wish it could have been my fault. That way I might have been able to do something about it, at least.”

You bit your lower lip. God, Jisung is so lovely, he is so damn lovely. His voice, his heart, his attitude, and everything. He was just born with it, wasn’t he? He was just born precious as such, born with immense empathy, born with the capacity to care and to love like no other.

And anytime when it would dawn upon you that you got the privilege to experience how tender he has learned to cradle one’s heart, and how you could now laugh in a world where he exists right next to you, you just freeze with a mindful pull in your chest. Your heart falls to your sleeve, beating at the sight of him, beating for him.

And you love him. You really do love him.

“You can be here for me from now on,” you said quietly, not looking at him.

Jisung softened. These cheesy lines were starting to become less and less rare, and he was so delighted to see the progress of you becoming more and more comfortable with him. Your heart was finally settling down alongside his. He nodded enthusiastically. “I will, I promise.”

A small snort escaped from behind you both. You could not recognize the voice but Jisung certainly could. Widening his eyes, he spun around and glared at Hyunjin, who had probably been listening long enough for him to make Jisung’s lunchtime a living Hell hours later, and pink blushes quickly formed on his cheeks at the thought of it.

“Good morning, Jisung,” Hyunjin greeted slyly.

You watched as Jisung shoved his friend on the shoulder before grabbing him by the collar and pushing him back. Hyunjin was giggling and not attempting to get Jisung off of him, clearly enjoying the moment of Jisung’s misery.

“How long have you been listening?” Jisung asked in a whine.

“Long enough to hear you make that cheesy promise,” Hyunjin snickered out. He then feigned a pout, his lower lip jutting out dramatically as he blinked his eyes until they looked soft enough to be romantic. 

Tilting his head to the side, he dialed his voice up and mocked, “I promise I will stay with you forever. I love you so much, oh my god–“

“I will end you right here, right now,” Jisung threatened, which didn’t feel much like a threat after he clamped his palm over Hyunjin’s mouth.

Hyunjin rolled his eyes and peeled Jisung’s hand away from him. He stepped away, finally settling his eyes on you before he did a curious head tilt, scanning you from head to toe. Jisung frowned from the side, feeling the uncomfortable tension rise in his chest as you challengingly held Hyunjin’s gaze for longer than he liked.

“Stop staring,” Jisung groaned, reaching up to smack Hyunjin’s cheek and mess up his hair when he turned away to dodge the attack.

“You two are the reason why people think students from our school are ill-disciplined.” A calm Seungmin has appeared from behind the two, brushing past them and stopping in front of you with the same amount curiosity Hyunjin showed you. 

After a moment of silence, he waved. “My name is Seungmin, a pleasure to meet you.”

“And I’m Felix!”

Your eyes widened at the shorter boy who popped up from behind Seungmin. Damn, there were just more and more of them! Awkwardly, you gave them both a nod of acknowledgment before you said, “My name is (Name).”

“And that one over there is Hyunjin,” Seungmin motioned over to the black-haired boy, who gave you a sweet smile as he continued to struggle with the loose headlock Jisung was desperately trying to put him in. 

Seungmin rolled his eyes at the two, inwardly fed up with their morning antics but not having the energy to break them apart. “Those two are always on about something. They get pretty physical with each other sometimes.”

Felix snorted at the mistranslated connotation, causing Jisung to finally let go of Hyunjin and return his attention to you three. He was frowning, embarrassment mixed with annoyance crossing his face when he approached you once again, giving Seungmin a glare in the process. 

“Can you not say it like that?” He complained, crossing his arms with a scoff.

“There is nothing wrong with the way I said it, you just took it the wrong way,” Seungmin shrugged.

Jisung grumbled under his breath, his pout more permanent now as he sulked with shrunken shoulders. He was feeling down about the fact that Hyunjin ruined such a nice moment you two were sharing.

What you said was a token of your acceptance, or at least he took it that way. You telling him that he could stay by your side meant that you really have become more comfortable with him as time passed.

But that was ruined now. And then the rest of his friend group went ahead and joined in when he could have just tried to shoo Hyunjin away so he could resume talking to you about anything.

Seeing his sudden grim state, you raised a brow and reached out to pat his arm. When Jisung looked at you, you tilted your head, your eyes asking all the questions you needed to ask, and Jisung replied the same way you asked him: with his soul leaping through the windows of his eyes.

It was a conversation without words, and that alone showed a kind of bond all his friends could see has grown to be close-knitted and sacred in some way.

“Oh my god, Hyunjin, I think you might have jinxed it when you said soulmates,” Felix mentioned quietly, his eyes fixated on you both when you gave Jisung’s arm another nudge to make him smile. 

His heart was pounding, his head wandering off into a romantic space as he imagined one day when he could find someone he could talk to by just looking at them.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Felix,” Seungmin waved his hand dismissively, “soulmates don’t exist.”

The words hung on the top of his tongue, and somehow the words felt wrong when he looked at you two again. 

The way Jisung was looking at you and the way he was smiling at you—Seungmin didn’t see it, he felt it. It was different; his eyes crinkled a little more than usual so the space within could only hold your image, his lips quirked without effort to show how euphoric he feels just being there with you.

The way Jisung looked at you was different than the way he looked at everyone else. And the more he looked, the more Seungmin wondered if Jisung knew.

A tap on his shoulder shook him out of his thoughts, and Seungmin barely turned his head over to the person in response. Felix breathed out a short laugh when he saw the gaze Seungmin had fixed on you and Jisung, uncertain as to why he was suddenly so concentrated but knowing it was something he could tease him about anyway.

He smacked Seungmin’s shoulder harshly to gain his full attention, rolling his eyes playfully when Seungmin glared at him.

“Do you want to invite (Name) to hang out with us after school today?” Felix asked, motioning towards you.

“I don’t care, ask Hyunjin.” He shrugged.

“Really? You stare a lot for someone who doesn’t care,” Felix responded.

Seungmin scoffed then. Whatever Felix was thinking about, which he could assume was something related to some dramatic romance, he was not feeling it.

He just had a little frozen moment upon feeling disbelief in what he had always thought was true, the fact that soulmate didn’t exist. He had always been so against the idea because of what he mentioned to Felix before: people desire it when they can never have it, and there is no point in chasing over a petty ideal.

“Jisung feels different, don’t you think?” Seungmin said gently, his hands tightening on the strap.

Felix raised a brow and looked over at his friend before he turned back to Seungmin, a shrug leaving his shoulders. “Not really?”

Seungmin sighed. Perhaps it was just him and his tendency to detect changes because Jisung felt different to him. He was still as fulfilling and bright as he used to be, but it wasn’t just him anymore. 

The blinding innocence in Jisung’s eyes, the way he speaks, and his gestures and everything had started to be able to look softer.

Everything about him went from shining for himself to a light that learned to accommodate somebody else; Jisung used to feel like he has all the love for the entire world, now he felt like he had put space aside to love a special someone. And it was not a mystery who that special someone turned out to be.

“Whatever then, forget I ever said anything.” Seungmin shrugged before he marched forward to catch up with the rest, urging Felix to follow behind.

When the two finally approached you both, the first thing Felix did was strike up a conversation with you. 

“We saw you with Jisung that one time and we have been meaning to introduce ourselves for a long time,” he beamed, “we never got the chance, though. And Jisung is so against us meeting you for some reason.”

“He thinks we are going to steal you from him,” Hyunjin joked with a roll of his eyes.

Amused, you arched a brow at Jisung, who groaned with a faint blush on his face. He thought the teasing would end earlier but turned out, it has just begun. Starting with his mini crush on you when you two first met each other to the strong affection his feelings have gradually blossomed into now, he would not be getting out of his hellhole in a long time, he knew.

“You overestimate yourself,” you muttered, turning your usual annoyed look—the signature dead eyes and the furrowed brows—at Hyunjin.

“Huh… really?” Hyunjin mused with a growing smirk, completely unfazed by your lack of enthusiasm, causing your frown to deepen.

Guess optimism runs in the friend group, huh?

“Anyway, we were thinking maybe you’d want to tag along with us to shop after school!” Felix asked, then he turned to Jisung, the smile on his face dimming slightly. “I hope you didn’t forget we planned to hang out today.”

Jisung clicked his tongue in annoyance, finding it very disappointing that his friend had such little faith in him. “I remember,” he replied before looking at you and whispering, “I was going to tell you about it but I guess they beat me to it.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you’re gonna hang out with your friends, Jisung,” you muttered.

“Well, I mean–since we always go home together, I figured you should know…” Jisung grumbled, his mind short-circuiting as he tried to make up a reason why he felt the need to tell you everything he does, anything that wouldn’t involve you.

He did realize how much he had made it seem like he was reporting to a significant other about his whereabouts, and perhaps that was what got him all flustered about it.

Seeing his friend being rendered speechless so quickly, Hyunjin rolled his eyes and let out a short scoff. He hasn’t seen Jisung like this since back in freshman year when he fell briefly in love—uhh, not quite. Even back then he hadn’t looked at her the way he looked at you today. 

A crush would suffice; Hyunjin hasn’t heard Jisung’s voice trail off that way since back then when he had this giant crush on a senior girl.

He has been trying to find a way to get Jisung to shut up sometimes. Turned out all it takes is to get him to fall in love. Maybe Hyunjin should have been more seductive in their friendship.

“Well? Do you want to tag along?” Hyunjin chimed in, stopping you from replying to Jisung. He tilted his head at you, raising a brow in encouragement yet it felt more like a challenging stance.

“Come along! It’ll be fun, and we can get to know you more!” Felix exclaimed, snapping his fingers as if what he said was a brilliant idea.

And it could be; expanding your social network, even if it was only by three people, could help you with your loneliness. Not that you have been lonely in a while now. Ever since Jisung came into your life, everything just got flipped upside down.

You’ve got company every morning and every night, whether it was in the form of spam texts during lunchtime or messy rambles at midnight when Jisung would slip under the cover with you and just talk nonstop.

And you have never once complained about only having Jisung as a companion. He was more than enough for you, and more than what you thought you deserved.

You looked at Jisung, asking for his opinion. He gave you a shrug, a warm smile on his face. When you hesitated, he gave you a small nudge on the back, encouraging you to take the invitation. 

Scanning all three of the unfamiliar boys, you pursed your lips together for a brief moment before you nodded. “Yeah, sure, I’ll come along.”

They smiled. Hilariously, you could assume their personality just from the way they smiled at you, just like the way you did so when you first saw them back during your little stalking period. 

Your heart pounded slightly as you heard Felix talk about his shopping plans while Seungmin walked ahead of you with him, Hyunjin following along closely.

It felt thrilling to gain friends you age once again. It made you wonder if the ones you used to have back then still remember you, or if they’ve ever tried to go after you. You let out a bitter chuckle. It was unlikely, you have never been friendly enough with anybody for them to drop everything just to find you.

“Are you excited?” Jisung asked then, snapping you out of your thoughts.

You softened. “Kind of.”

He turned to look at you then, the warm smile still evident on his face. “I bet you can’t wait to hang out with someone who isn’t me, huh?”

You laughed, your voice as light as feathers. Although you desperately wanted to make a joke, the swirling in your heart prevented you from doing so.

“No. It would be great to have a few more friends, I know, but I don’t think I will ever get tired of hanging out with you,” you replied casually. “And just so we are clear, no one can ever take me from you.“

You didn’t look at him; you weren’t sure if you would have been able to say such embarrassing things if you were looking at him. But he was staring at you with the same look again, the softened eyes and loving smile. The look that mirrored the tender falling of first love, the look that screamed he had fallen in love with you all over again.

“I love you, (Name),” he whispered, the thought too big in his head he needed to get it out of his system.

You laughed, brightly. “Yeah.” You reached over to grab his hand and ran your thumb smoothly over the back of his palm, feeling his rough skin and delicate touch. “I promise I will say it back someday.”

He smiled. He’ll wait.

* * *

You pulled at your fingers as an uneasy feeling striking up in your chest for no reason.

You went through with the plan and joined the boys on a window-shopping spree after school. It was mostly just them chatting while they walked through the crowd, though. 

Occasionally, they would stop by a shop or two when they found something interesting, but more often than not, they would take a look at the product of interest and just whine about wanting to buy it instead of actually buying it.

The only one who has bought anything was Felix and his boba milk tea, one that everyone else has taken at least two sips already.

The boys have been engaging you in casual conversations, all in hopes to make sure you could warm up to them more easily. Especially after Jisung spent the lunchtime making sure they wouldn’t accidentally step over a sensitive line, and to warn them about you being rather alert around strangers.

But while having good intentions in mind, they were unable to detect the fact that you were only growing more and more anxious as time goes.

When you first met Jisung, you didn’t have anyone else you were trying to please, and therefore, you have got more chances to distance yourself from him. With him, it was a gradual process of becoming friends; you did not immediately click with him, you did not see him every single day and you did not have full-blown conversations with him for longer than thirty minutes.

There were time lapses in between your process of getting closer to Jisung, which was what you were more comfortable with.

Hyunjin, Seungmin, and Felix were three people who kept dragging you into conversations. Seungmin lesser than the others, you realized, but he was a pain in the ass for being so good at holding onto a conversation you deeply wanted to end.

It was exhausting to talk for so long with people you barely knew, especially when you were in constant fear that what you said simply won’t be entertaining enough for them.

They were, after all, Jisung’s friends. You would like nothing more than to leave a good impression and to make new friends, but not at such a quick pace where you needed to answer one curious question after another. 

It was completely out of your comfort zone and not within your social capability. You needed to be away from them to recharge yourself, yet somehow whenever you tried to bring that up, you found the words being stuck at your throat.

These three were good and friendly people; you could not guarantee their reaction when you tell them you needed them to shut the hell up for a second, and frankly, you didn’t want to have to say that to them.

Jisung noticed your micro-movements when you turned away to face the zooming cars out on the road. His smile faded and concern quickly flooded into his eyes. Discreetly moving away from his friends, who were bickering among themselves, he grabbed you gently by the edge of your wrist and pulled at you for attention.

When you looked at him, he asked, “Are you okay?”

His eyes have been home to you ever since the night you told him about yourself; calming, caressing, warming. You could tell him everything he wanted to know, and you have told him everything he wanted to know.

But as you caught his eyes right now, all you could think about was how much you must have burdened him for the past few weeks and how much you wanted to stop doing that.

“Yeah,” you replied. “I am just a little hungry, I guess?”

He looked at you for a while, accessing your facial expressions, then he broke into a soft smile. 

“We can go get something to eat, I know a store just down the street,” he said before turning around and beckoning the rest over. “Let’s go get something to eat, (Name) said they’re hungry.”

Felix perked up with a nod, agreeing to the idea. Then he stretched his arm out to you, the bottle of milk tea in his hand. “You can have some of my milk tea if you want,” he said, shaking the bottle.

Seungmin chuckled as he pointed at the cup. “I think you drank all the milk tea already, it’s just boba now.”

Felix furrowed his brows as he raised his cup to glance inside. He let out a small yelp of surprise when all he saw was a pile of boba with the tea all drained from the cup. Clicking his tongue in annoyance, he turned to Seungmin and whined, “You drank everything! What about me–I bought this!”

“Me? What about Hyunjin? He was holding it for a good five minutes back there,” Seungmin retorted as he shoved Hyunjin a little, looking at Felix in disbelief. 

Then he turned to Jisung and pointed at him as well. “Jisung drank a lot too! He just takes big gulps and stores them in his cheeks at a time, that’s why it feels like he didn’t drink too much!”

Ahh, their tendency to start an argument over the littlest things were, needless to say, entertaining to you. Not only did it give you a chance to relax, but it also gave you free real-life drama to watch.

Amid their bickering, you relaxed a little upon the lack of attention fixated on you, and finally, you decided it would be a good time to help yourself out with some anxiety-reducing magic. You should have done it all along but there was never the right time to bring the strings out, and you didn’t feel like lying about it.

You reached behind your at your bag and fished around blindly for the plastic board of strings. Your brows furrowed as you traced the bands of them with your finger, trying to feel their energy and to find the loose ends. 

As you did so, you also focused on the conversation that the boys were having, which seemed to be getting more and more heated—in a playful way—as seconds ticked by.

“You guys always drink my stuff! It isn’t just this time!” Felix complained, pouting down at the bottle with angry eyes.

“If you don’t like it then why didn’t you say something?” Hyunjin asked, “We wouldn’t have drunk it if you told us not to.”

Jisung gave Hyunjin a faint, deadpan smile. “You know Felix is kind of a people-pleaser, right? He can’t say no.”

“So you’re saying he is a pushover?” Hyunjin snickered, causing Felix to glare at Jisung in shock.

Seungmin rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to join the argument, it all seemed rather pointless to him, and he wanted to end it as quickly as possible. “I’ll buy you one back then, you petty bastard,” he said to Felix, once again not being the best conversation killer there is.

Felix grimaced bitterly, unamused by Seungmin’s tone. “When you say it like that, it makes me sound like the bad person,” he said. “If that’s the case then I don’t want it.”

Hyunjin huffed out a laugh, turning to look at Jisung and shoving the boy on the shoulder. “People-pleaser, you say?”

“Oh–shut up,” Jisung groaned out, punching him back with an equal amount of strength.

Hyunjin gasped, not expecting Jisung to repeat his movements since he never really did. “No, you shut up,” he retorted, returning the punch and thus, not killing adding a sub-argument to this seemingly never-ending cycle of heated bickering.

You were too focused on threading out a pattern with your fingers to care about what the boys were still talking about. You could hear their voices being thrown back and forth, though, just not quite the words they were saying. 

After all, there was no need for you to pay attention; everything would be resolved quickly, just like all the other little quarrels they’ve had the past hour.

As you concentrated on creating the pattern with your fingers, finding yourself growing less and less nervous when there was a complicated task at hand, you could hear a loud yelp coming from Jisung and a clumsy shout from who you guessed to be Felix, and after that, it was an array of honks coming from the road just beside the pedestrian street you all stood on.

“Hey! Hey! Jisung–“

You snapped your head up. That sounded urgent enough for you to finally break out of your own bubble.

Eyes trailing after the boys, who were all staring with blazing eyes towards one single direction: Jisung. His body was falling backward, presumably being pushed by someone who had miscalculated their strength, and he was close to falling to the ground when your eyes shifted up at where the honk came from.

A car was rushing forward slowly but you knew it was only a problem of perceptive. Your heart rate picked up and your fingers had already started to undo the pattern on instinct. Judging by the way Jisung was falling, and by the distance between him and all of you, it would be impossible for Jisung to be pulled back to safety in time.

It would either be the driver slowing down, or he gets tackled farther to the road, which would be equally as dangerous.

Without a second thought, as the car from behind tired to screech to a pause but to no avail, you jumped out of your spot and onto the road. Your hand had immediately thought of the quickest spell you could think of, tying knots and moving fingers until an easy pattern was formed. 

The string moved quickly as if it could feel your urgency, and as soon as they wrapped around your forearm, they squeezed your skin with a piercing ache to churn out more energy.

Jisung could feel a hand around his head, a palm pressing against his hair and his face muffled in your chest. He could recognize your embrace anywhere and at any moment. But instead of feeling solace as he would normally when drowned in your arms, his mind was suffocating with the sound of shattered glass and beeping engine. 

He breathed heavily, his eyes moving to glance to the side and his eyes widened at the trickle of blood that melted down the string on your forearm.

The pain was relentless in its attack, spreading from your palm that broke the top hood of the speeding car to all the exposed skin of your forearm. You channeled too much magic, and even then it was not enough as your fingers felt numb under the impact of shielding the both of you. 

You’ve probably broken your hand with this, but the bone-shattering pain went unnoticed as you pulled yourself away from Jisung and stood up.

“(Name)…” Jisung muttered, his eyes wide at your lifeless hand as you clutched it with your functional one.

Your brows were furrowed. The pain was finally starting to get to you, all after you have made sure Jisung was fine and safe from harm. Looking around, you sucked in a huge breath at the prying eyes and gossipy cameras those eyes have whipped out. 

And your new friends—if you could consider them that now—were all staring at you in horror, not sure from what you did or from what you received as a result.

Attention. There was too much attention plastered all over the crowd, targeted on you, your bleeding hand, and your swelling fingers. Fuck–your bones were broken, you couldn’t move your hand at all without the help of the other one. The only thing keeping you from succumbing to the pain was the lingering magic sparing you an act of generosity.

Glancing back at Jisung, you huffed out a quiet breath and shook your head when he stepped towards you. “I…” You inhaled sharply, and all you could fathom to do was turn around and make a run for it.

“(Name)–hey, wait!” Jisung wanted to go after you but he was quickly stopped by the driver, who was half concerned about your injuries and half angry that Jisung had appeared out of nowhere. 

Swinging around and swatting the stranger’s hand away, his gaze was a pit of merciless black when he glared at the driver, wanting nothing more than to run after you immediately.

“Look, sir, I don’t have time to talk to–“

“Go, I got this,” Seungmin chimed in as he moved Jisung to the side. He gave the confused boy a firm nod, glancing behind his shoulder at where you had run off to before ignoring Jisung’s questioning gaze and turning to the driver.

“Jisung, we can still catch up if we run now,” Felix urged as he pulled at his hand, forcing him to move.

Jisung blinked for a moment, still trying to comprehend the situation. Right. You got hit by a car, you shielded both him and you so you got hit by a car. And you were bleeding when you ran away. He pursed his lips and took off towards where he saw you left. 

Why did you run away?

* * *

The strings couldn’t work with one hand.

You have never considered such a circumstance before; the circumstance when only one set of your fingers work while the others were rendered completely useless. It was so suddenly presented to you that you weren’t able to think of any plausible solution aside from struggling through the pain and hoping you could somehow make the patterns work with one hand.

You remembered seeing your mother do it when she was multi-tasking around the house so at least you could have faith that there it is possible to do that.

After finding an empty alleyway, you reached the far corner of the dark space and slid down against the dry, rocky concrete wall. Even puffs of air went in and out of your lips as you tried to regulate your breathing and not cause any more pain within yourself; the broken hand and the torn skin were hurtful enough.

Glancing down at your hand, your previously steady breath came out shakier than ever upon the reddening bulge, glazed over with the pouring blood that stained the blue string.

You couldn’t feel your arm anymore when you poke at it, but somehow the pain still lingered strong.

“Okay… okay…” You kept reminding yourself as you reached to blindly a loose end of your blue string.

It was submerged with your skin entirely, you found out. Using the wrong string for a power-type spell was already bad enough as it channeled unnecessary energy, not to mention you had to keep using it for pain-reduction, causing the string to keep draining your blood through the tissues of your skin by wrapping its bladed surface tighter around your arm.

You had no other choice but to dig your nails through the gap where the string was etched into, hoping to needle out an opening for you to lose your finger through and tug the string out slowly. 

Tears welled up in your eyes at the agonizing pain when you ever so lightly pulled at the hem of the string, peeling it away from your skin.

It felt like the sharp end of a blade running across your skin repeatedly, the sharp and stinging pain gutting you with each inch you take off.

Opting to take breaks between each little peels, your heart clenched at how hopeless you were, and a bitterly triumphant smile slowly eased its way to your face. This situation hit home for you—being in trouble and being alone.

A loud exhale left your lips as you let your arms drop to the ground for a moment, your eyes rolling skywards at the clouds, and your smile dimmed when it suddenly hit you that you could kindly take your time with smoothing the pain out.

You didn’t have anywhere else to be anyway.

Your phone rang, snapping you out of your thoughts. Letting it ring for a while, you clicked your tongue at how insistent the caller was before you fished it out of your pocket. When you saw Jisung’s name flashed across the screen, your heart halted with a stumble.

Oh god, what were you thinking? Someone out there was desperately looking for you—Han Jisung has been looking for you all over the place.

“(Name)! Where the hell are you?” Jisung’s panicked voice came out as a shout when you picked up.

“I… uhh,” you gulped down a harsh breath, “I only went straight so you will see a mini-park when you leave the shopping are. If you turn a corner around the crossroad, you will see an alleyway. I’m just inside.”

There was shuffling on the other side. You could hear Jisung call out to his friends before he pressed his phone back to his ears and he huffed with each step, not quite running but walking fast enough to be out of breath.

You didn’t dare to hang up, he sounded angry when you finally picked up the call and you assumed he had things to tell you. While he stayed silent for you, you decided to hold your phone between your ear and your shoulder as your hand went back to business.

“You better be okay when I get there,” Jisung scolded, his mind flashing back to the bloodied arm you got before you ran away. “How could you just up and leave me like that?”

“I’m sorry–“ you winced with a squint of your eye, a yelp leaving your lips when a particularly sharp inch tore at your skin.

Jisung furrowed his brows immediately, the grip on his phone tightening as he picked up his pace. “(Name), what is that? Are you okay?”

“Yeah… no, actually, not really, but I will deal with it.” You said through gritted teeth. “Anyway, I just got overwhelmed and my first response was to leave the scene.”

Jisung sighed in defeat. He couldn’t blame you for that, especially since he knew how much you hated being under the spotlight and how much the crowd drains you out.

He just wished you could have asked him for help if he could have done something; he could have left with you to fix your hand, which he assumed you would much rather not go to the hospital for. But you were still in pain, and the fact that he was not there to help you was breaking him apart.

It felt like a piece of his heart just left his chest and started to roam around the world, and he couldn’t be there to hold you and keep you safe.

“I think I’m here–oh, please be there,” Jisung muttered as he turned a corner and walked straight into the alleyway. He hung up the phone and shoved it in his pocket, his legs rushing until he finally saw you sitting all the way at the back corner.

His heart dropped at the sight of you. Hair stuck to your forehead due to the sweat, your bloodied arm still a raging color of fresh redness, and you were breathing heavily in pain as you finished off with the tightened blue string around your forearm.

Jisung felt tears brimming behind his eyes as a lump of fear jumped to this throat, forcing him to let out incoherent sounds of protest as he rushed to approach you before dropping to his knees.

“No, no–what are you doing? Stop, you’re hurt–you’re hurting yourself.”

His voice came out croaked and his hands were fumbling in the air, somewhere close to yours in hopes to stop your movements. But still, he wasn’t sure if he should stop you because he knew he wasn’t knowledgeable enough in this matter.

“Jisung, I have to do this if I want to heal my arm up. It’s gotten far too deep, if I use magic again it’ll only go deeper,” you explained calmly despite wanting nothing more than to break down in front of him. 

His friends finally made it to the end of the alleyway then, and you could only give all three of them a firm nod before returning to Jisung.

“You can help me by making the pattern I taught you this morning, can you do that?”

Jisung nodded. “Wh–what do I have to do?”

“Just go into my bag and find a green string, the same amount I made you use this morning. You are going to have to make it for me because my bones are shattered,” you instructed, feeling him pause in the middle of going to your backpack. And when Jisung gave you a verbal agreement, his voice was much more watery than before.

He was trying very hard to focus on his task. His eyes darted between his hands and you, his mind jumping between remembering what to do and feeling anxious that you were literally going through so much pain right in front of him. He felt like crying, the tears threatening to spill over little by little, but he held it in just so he could appear stronger than his heart was.

You could see him trembling from your peripheral vision and you could tell by the way he was cursing that he had to start over multiple times. Jisung was getting frustrated, fearsomely frustrated that he couldn’t get the pattern done faster, and he was starting to blame himself for everything that has happened thus far. 

However, no matter how much you wanted to help him out, you couldn’t break concentration on your task.

You have learned to lean into the pain now. If you turn to talk to him, you would have to start over again. You just need to have faith that he remembered what you taught him.

Standing not too far behind you both were the rest of the boys. Awkwardly and unsurely, they stood close to each other and stared ahead at you both. What they witnessed just then were still vivid in their mind, but while demanding an explanation from you or Jisung, they planned to keep quiet for now at this tense minute.

“Should–should we do something?” Felix whispered after he leaned towards his two friends, his eyes focusing on the dry blood staining your skin.

None of them replied to him because there was nothing to say. They barely understood how you didn’t die or how the car got more damage than you did, how were they supposed to go about helping you out? 

Besides, this whole incident happened because of them, technically. If they hadn’t started bickering with each other, this would not have happened.

Jisung screamed in joy when he was finally done with the string. He smiled at it before looking at you for confirmation, but you were still trying to take off the remaining of the blue string.

Furrowing his brows painfully at you, he waited patiently before you suddenly collapsed against the wall with a relieved sigh, the string dropping to the ground after you let go of it. Jisung felt the rocks on his shoulders roll away too as soon as you were done.

“I did it! This is right, I hope?” He said, presenting you the pattern.

You looked at it, your eyes squinted in thoughts before you gave him a faint nod. “Yeah…” you reached your working hand out to him, your fingers spread widely, “You are going to have to put it on one hand. My other hand can’t afford to sustain more magic.”

Jisung blanked out then. He has only ever seen you do this with both hands! He was barely skilled at it, let alone sticking the pattern to only five of your fingers! Shaky eyes trailed towards your face and at your fingers, then he gulped as he eyed his own hands—Jisung didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t even begin transferring the string to your hand.

“I… Can you guys come and help me?” He suddenly turned behind him then, yelling at his friends.

The three scurried over to you quickly, kneeling by your side and wordlessly listening to Jisung’s explanation. A lot of suggestions were made as all four of them fumbled with the patterned string on Jisung’s hands, trying their best to shrink it all fit at the tip of your fingers. It took a while but they finally managed.

And you, without a second thought, immediately cast a healing spell and palmed your bloody forearm. The pain vanished gradually and your wounds sealed itself up in a fading manner; it felt like unreal that it almost looked as if the sight was generated by a computer program.

“Oh, fuck, finally,” you huffed out as you raised your arms in front of your face to wiggle your fingers, feeling all of your muscles move freely unlike before.

Seeing your arms going back to normal, Jisung softened upon relief. And although the dry blood still served as a reminder of what had happened, he took off his schoolbag and scooted closer to you so he could move your arms away and dive right into your embrace. His arms going around your torso as he slumped down onto the ground.

You widened your eyes, completely taken by back his action. Not only did you smell like metal, but you also looked like a damn dirtbag. And all of his friends were just there, watching you both with careful eyes. “Jisung,” you whispered. “I’m bloody, don’t do this.”

He whined with a shake of his head, stubbornly tightening his arms around your waist as he adjusted the position of his head on your chest, and he reached for your previous injuries hand, lacing his fingers through yours loosely and leaving it on the ground. 

After all that preparation, he finally let himself stare off into a distance, clearing his head to listen to your heart beat.

It had always calmed him down to hear it, just the idea that you’re alive and there next to him.

A pout inched its way to his face when you asked him to move again because your blood could be staining his white uniform, but Jisung insisted on holding onto you at the moment, and he only relaxed when you heaved a sigh and gently patted his head in defeat.

Looking up at the three boys, all with faces of confusion, you pursed your lips together. “I’m sure you three have questions.”

“No shit we do,” Hyunjin said, his brows furrowing finally as he looked at you.

You told them everything. Almost everything, at least, minor details of how your family fell to its deathbed and how exactly does magic work. Just overall the gist of what would clear their confusion about what you are, as a magic-user and as a person who has lived among non-magical people. And you watched their suspicious faces turn into clear understandings of the situation.

Hyunjin was the first to stand up after silence ensued. Everyone turned to him with curious eyes, waiting for his next move, and they were all taken back when he wordlessly turned around and just walked out of the place. 

Not protesting his action, although still unsure why Hyunjin had reacted the way he did, Seungmin and Felix both gave you and Jisung a glance before they got up and left with Hyunjin.

You sighed loudly when you knew they were out of earshot, your hand dropping from Jisung’s head to his waist. “Do you think I scared them away?” You asked then.

Jisung hummed in genuine thoughts, not seemed to be taken back by his friends’ actions at all. “No, I think we have done worse things to each other,” he commented truthfully. “They can handle this. If I can handle it, so can they.”

You breathed out unsurely, your anxiety getting the best of you. While not quite caring how your relationship could be affected by your background, since you’ve always had people leave you for it anyway, you wished hard that it would not ruin Jisung’s friendship with them.

For one, it would be cruel to make him choose between his friends and you. For two, you got second thoughts about who he would choose if the dilemma proposes itself to him.

You continuously doubt your place in Jisung’s heart. He would go insane if he knew you didn’t trust your place in his heart to be on the top priority because he’s got you placed before himself somewhere down the line.

He knew that before when you two just realized you guys were soulmates, he knew that when he started whispering those ‘I love you’s differently after you fell asleep, and he knew that now with his arms around your waist and his head still pressed against your chest in refusal to let go.

“(Name)…” His voice was muffled when he looked up at you, his eyes innocently wide and sparked with sincerity. They were the way he always looked at you, and they always managed to make your heart jump with affection.

Your hand instinctively flew up to his head, playing with his hair as your eyes softened upon the vulnerable atmosphere. Jisung played with your finger, his movement bashful and shy before he held your hand and let it lay on the ground.

“I… “ He sighed. “Next time when something like that happens, please don’t run away again.”

You pursed your lips together, feeling rather guilty that you had put him through such stressful events. But the remorseful feeling vanished as soon as he spoke again.

“It scares me to not be there when you’re hurt. Even if I may not be of much help, I want to at least be there for you so you aren’t alone,” he explained before he looked up at you again. 

There was something in his eyes, a swirl of florescent light, something celestial but different than the usual ones you have seen. He was looking at you differently, you could finally tell for the first time.

“I love you so much. Please don’t do that again.” He whispered to you.

And somehow, you just knew he had meant that. He meant that confession in the most loving, the most romantic way possible. It wasn’t the ones he throws at you during mid-conversation, the ones he would say with a goofy smile on his face when he made a mistake. 

This was real; as real as the double knots he pretended to tie on your soulmate string that one night and as real as the feeling of his lips when he kisses you goodnight thinking you wouldn’t know.

“I’m sorry,” you muttered under your breath, your eyes facing forward. “I…” you sucked in a shaky breath, but you felt ready, “I love you too.”

Jisung’s eyes widened for a fraction, he had not expected you to say it back so quickly. He thought he would have to wait a little while for it, which he didn’t mind at all. This was a pleasant surprise, and he hugged your tighter for it, a tender smile and a soft blush growing on his face.

He felt childish for being so overjoyed over something so small, even though it is never something small when it comes to having your deepest feelings be returned by the person of desire because you’ve got to be really lucky for the universe to time your moments right like this.

It seemed like the stars loved you both enough to hand you over to each other, and how fortunate it was that they got it right this time around.

Footsteps could be heard from not too far away and you looked up, anticipating the arrival of three boys. Felix was the first one to stop in front of you, followed by Hyunjin and Seungmin who trailed behind slowly. You raised an eyebrow at the giddy boy, watching as he pulled his hand out from behind him to reveal a small paper bag.

“We got you something!” Felix exclaimed as he handed you the bag.

He sat on his heels and watched expectantly as you pulled out a small keychain knitted into a cartoon squirrel with dirty brown strings. You couldn’t help but let out a low chuckle as you dangled it in front of your face; this must be from the fact that you use string magic, but unfortunately, these strings would probably not do you much good due to how low the quality was.

Jisung snickered for a moment and he shrunk back towards you when he received three glares.

“Sorry about what happened, it was our fault,” Hyunjin said. “This won’t make up for what happened but we hope you will take it anyway.”

“I paid for it, by the way,” Seungmin chimed in. “These two just found the store and picked it up.”

Well, it was the thought that counted. You haven’t received a gift from anyone but yourself in a long time, and this one single keychain felt like ten missed birthdays mashed into one.

Giving them a smile, you held it tightly in your hand and spoke, “I accept your apology, and thank you for the keychain.”

A smile slowly blossomed onto their faces, widely and discreetly. Felix clapped his hands together then, a hopeful expression on his face, “So we’re still friends, right?”

You nodded at them, and you felt warm, really warm on the inside. Like they just barged into your heart, bickering and laughing loudly, disregarding every aspect of you that you thought was unloveable. 

And they just sat right next to Jisung, taking up the remaining space he couldn’t occupy, and you figured they would stay there, in your soul, for as long as you could handle it.

“Great! Now can we actually go eat something–oh no, wait.” Seungmin frowned at you. “Your shirt and your arm… we can’t go outside like that.”

“Hey, I have my jersey if you want to wear it, it can cover up most of the stain,” Hyunjin suggested with a shrug. “It probably smells like sweat, though, since I haven’t washed it in a week and I practiced in it every day.”

Felix took off his bag and reached in for a bottle of water and a handkerchief. He looked at you and hummed, “Yeah, let’s wash the blood off. We wouldn’t get past the kids playing in the park so it’s better if we wash it off here.”

“Oh yeah, that’s true,” Seungmin nodded. “Oh, and I have a small perfume you can use. Hyunjin’s sweat smells like literal garbage.”

Jisung snorted, finally pulling away and looking up at the taller boy, who glared at Seungmin with a deadpan expression. “I thought you wanted to cover up the bloody smell.” He laughed. “But yeah, totally, I think Hyunjin smells worse than this.”

Hyunjin rolled his eyes. “You know you only need three people to start a religion, right?” He said, “Felix, me, and (Name), I will literally build a Seungmin and Jisung hating religion.”

Jisung laughed. “(Name) won’t join you.”

You sucked in a breath then, playfully following along with Hyunjin’s. “Yeah, I don’t know about that?”

Jisung widened his eyes at you then, but instead of calling you out for playing along, he turned to Hyunjin and began a string of bad trash talking. You watched as the other two got dragged into the feud, mindless insults being thrown around the air like a plastic ball, and a laugh bubbled up to your throat quietly.

Guess loveliness runs in the friend group as well.

* * *

A few weeks passed and you have gotten closer to the three boys than you ever thought you could be. You had been meeting up with all of them after school and they have dragged you to different places before and after your work.

Coffee shops where you all share one cup of bitter coffee, clothing stores where none of you ever buy anything from, you just hold the shirts to your bodies and think about wearing them, and pop-up art museums where you were fairly sure they only went for the aesthetics rather than the actual art.

It felt like you’ve been around the world just by spending time with the four of them. And everything they did—all the dragging you to places and waiting for you to finish with work so they could take you to hang out—was all in an attempt to give you back the childhood you should have had.

They weren’t responsible for what happened to you, they knew, but as your friends, they felt it would be their part to make you as happy as you ever could now.

They even went as far as to join you at your night shift after midnight once, causing a ruckus in the convenience store by continuously purchasing instant noodles and sodas until they have either tried everything in the store or was starting to get tummy aches from all the different mixture of food. 

All four of them ended up falling asleep with their heads on the countertop by the start of sunrise, and you all ate breakfast in the store when your shift ended before bidding each other goodbye.

It was one of the warmest you have ever felt; when Felix laid his head on your shoulder as he dozed off, still sipping the juice box in his hand; when Hyunjin ruffled your hair when you could finally join them by the windowpane; when Seungmin went to heat the bento box for you so you and sat for the entirety of breakfast so you could have his seat.

Just all the smallest things that made the world a little brighter for you.

“I knew we should not have picked today to come here,” Seungmin said as he faced the crowded area.

You guys have planned to visit a cat café on a whooping Sunday afternoon—well, no, Felix planned it and made you all join him by booking a table for five beforehand. Seungmin had complained about him picking a bad date, and he was right.

The shopping area was packed with people free from school and work, moving from one corner to the other as they went about their last free day before the week recycles again. 

That simply made it harder for you all because none of you knew exactly where this café was located and you guys were on quite a tight schedule.

“There was only today!” Felix huffed. “Hyunjin should have come earlier, then we wouldn’t have to worry about being late to the reservation. We would have had time to look for the café.”

Hyunjin rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue in response to the accusation. “You made the reservation, Felix,” he said. “If anything, you should know where it is.”

Jisung and you shared a look before he pursed his lips and stepped between the two, his hands raised in mock defeat. With an awkward laugh, he began, “Alright. Let’s not fight, we can just ask (Name) to find it for us!”

You widened your eyes at him incredulously then, surprised by his suggestion. When the three boys turned their hopeful eyes at you, you only shook your head at them. “I can’t do that,” you said. “We don’t have location spells like that.”

“What? So what kind of location spells do you have?” Jisung asked, dropping his arms to his sides.

“Uhh, the kind that finds people? Or the kind that finds places that don’t have duplicated names like such as ‘The Meow Café,’ ” You replied with faint disbelief.

“There is probably only one of those cafés around this area, (Name),” Seungmin pointed out.

You sucked in a breath and forced a smile at him. Seungmin, always so smart but yet somehow he was never on the right page.

“Right, except the strings, don’t point out where it is to me so I can eliminate the places,” you said. “They pull me towards the place, meaning that if there is one of these cafés down the other direction, I will get pulled towards two different places at once.”

He sighed then, a somewhat disappointed sigh. “That’s unconventional.”

“Phone maps that don’t work without an internet connection are unconventional,” you retorted. “At least my strings work anytime I need them to.”

Seungmin was about to speak again when Jisung clamped his hand over his mouth, a smile on his face but a glare in his eyes. Part of him was happy that you and Seungmin’s relationship has gotten to this point where you could bicker with him as much as he and Hyunjin would with each other, but sometimes he thought how much more venomous you two were in comparison.

He urged Seungmin to shut up and made sure he would comply before he released him, turning back to stand by your side. 

Clearing his throat, Jisung gave everyone a brief look before he suggested, “How about we split up and look for it? If some of us arrived then they can’t cancel our reservation.”

“Finally, an idea!” Hyunjin exclaimed. “I’ll go with Felix!”

Seungmin furrowed his brows as he looked at the two. When he realized he wasn’t quite feeling like joining the chaotic duo, he turned to look over at you and Jisung. He frowned more because of the petty argument you two just had, and he grimaced as he took a few steps step. 

“I’ll ask around by myself,” he said.

You looked away, not wanting to meet eyes with him at the moment not because you felt guilty but solely out of spite to act like you couldn’t care less. You knew he would come around eventually and you two would be chatting again in no time, so for now, you’d simply wither under all the spiteful actions you could muster and prepare to not apologize to him later.

After the little searching parties were formed, you all went separate in different directions. You and Jisung continued to walk straight ahead while the others went on either side where the roads open up with more stores littered on the side.

The crowd was still large and buzzing, causing a lot of trouble with sticking together and walking normally; it was almost as if you two were stuck waiting for a queue in a theme park. Jisung kept turning his head back to glance at you, his brows furrowing more and more each time when he noticed how you seemed to get farther and farther away from him.

Soon enough, when he turned back once again, he could barely see you among people anymore. He clicked his tongue and halted his steps, his eyes darting everywhere for your face. He waited for the people to move around him, some throwing him glares for not moving while some others simply moved out of his way, none of them causing him to budge from his spot until you caught up with him slowly, popping out from behind strangers.

“It’s so crowded here,” you complained with a sigh. “Felix really chose a bad day.”

He smiled faintly, giving you a shrug. “At least we can pet kittens later,” he said before looking down at his phone, a map displayed on his screen. He had no idea where it was bringing him to, he just knew he didn’t trust it, but having a map was better than blindly guessing where the shop would be.

Putting his phone back into his pocket, he gave the surrounding shops a scan before he hummed. “I think we should try walking further and see.”

“Yeah, I will keep an eye out.” You nodded at him.

Before Jisung moved again, he casually reached over to grab your hand before he started to walk. A silent squeal fell at the tip of your tongue, for some odd reason your mind didn’t consider this to be a grand gesture even though your heart was swelling at how bold that was.

It was just to keep you from getting lost in the crowd and to keep you from being separated from him; for all you knew, Hyunjin was probably dragging Felix by the hand as well considering the sea of people around you. But it was a romantic gesture, nonetheless.

Jisung kept his head forward. The first few seconds of him holding your hand, he went through it with widened eyes and pursed lips, a blushy smile threatening to rise to his face. He was both surprised at his daringness and glad that you chose to keep your hand wrapped under his.

Then he slowly got used to it, the softness of your palm no longer a foreign object of his affection and desire. You were close to him, you two were holding hands among the crowd, and there was that.

As you two shifted through waves of people, Jisung suddenly paused as his head turned to the side. You followed where he was looking at, wondering if he had found the shop already only to find him looking at a stationery store.

Turning back to him, you asked, “Do you need to get something?”

Jisung hummed in thoughts, unsure if he should wait until you guys are done with the café before coming back here to get what he needed for school. But he also didn’t want his forgetful self to remember he needed something until you both got home because a coffee shop filled with cats seemed like a nice place to get school-related amnesia.

“Kind of…” he muttered as he started tugging at your hand, bringing you out of the main street and to the side where the shops were located. “It’ll just be a minute,” he said when you two were at the entrance, his thumb briefly brushing past the back of your palm as a form of farewell before he let go and rushed into the store.

You watched his back disappear into the shelves before looking away and leaning against the wall, hiding near an empty corner so you couldn’t be in people’s way. 

During this empty moment, you decided to glance down at your hand instead of watching people pass by, thus running the risk of making awkward eye-contact with strangers.

A small smile appeared on your lips as you squeezed your hand together, remembering the shape of Jisung’s hand in yours.

Ahh, you felt like such a sap but it was rightfully so. Ever since that day in the alleyway, things have changed for both of you. None of you have made a declarative move yet but there have been moments of affection here and there; there has been a lot of suggestive questions and dodgy replies, blatant smiles and glances, and a whole lot of subtle touching.

It was all pushing and pulling, not telling each other how you feel and leaving confusing signals.

As you huffed out a breath of fresh air, trying to keep your mind off of the sappy relationship problems (that were not so many problems, really), your eyes caught sight of a pair of designer shoes stopping in front of you. You ignored it for a moment, not thinking much of it, but the when person refused to leave, you finally snapped your head up.

The irritation that masked over your face faded the second you saw those pair of familiar eyes shining down at you. The man stared at you for a good moment before realization flooded into his face, and he huffed out an almost relieved laugh upon seeing your faint smile.

“Minho…” you muttered under your breath, disbelief clouding your judgment upon seeing the man who used to babysit you when your parents were off to council gatherings.

Since his family was more lenient on having him be around on council meetings despite being of age to do so, he had always gotten free time to take care of you, and he only did so under your uncle’s request.

“Oh my god, it is you,” he gasped in wonder. “I haven’t seen you in… years.”

“Yeah, I know. I was there when you didn’t see me,” you said. “How are you? How have you been?”

“I’ve been fine. Worried about you, for sure,” he replied briefly before slamming his mouth shut. He almost brought up the incident; he was young back then but he understood the intensity of the situation, and he waited for you to turn to him for help or comfort.

You did, once or twice, but then you simply vanished and never returned.

“People thought you died because nobody in the council has heard from you again–I thought you died!”

You gave him a casual shrug, your lips pursing as you thought of what to say to him. He must have felt betrayed somehow. Despite everything, Minho had been close to you back in those babysitting days. He cooked your meals, he tutored you with school, and he had lied to your parents for you countless times. Even the trusty spell you used to hide your trails came from him when he taught you how to always win in a game of hide-and-seek.

It was a simple spell. It was easy to break but nobody thought to break it, not even Minho.

“You should consider coming back, (Name),” he suggested then, straightening his posture.

You furrowed your brows at him, unable to fathom how he thought that would be a good idea. “What? Why?” You asked.

“The council still has a spot for you,” Minho said.

“Tell them to find somebody else then,” you shrugged coldly. “I’m not interested in working for a group that killed my family.”

Minho gave you a brief sigh of defeat then, trying to find the right words to phrase everything. “Look… it has been years, (Name). I am sorry that sounds insensitive but it has been years since what happened,” he began. “The council is much different now, I promise you. Most of the people who used to be there are not a member anymore. You should give it a chance. Come back, I can help you.”

You sucked in a breath. Disregarding the fact that you could never get over what happened to your family, you could appreciate Minho’s determination to help you out. But you never wished to go back to that godforsaken place. Not only because of the tragic memories plastered all over that city but also because you have got important things here with you now.

You built your identity in this city; you found your job here, you met your friends here, and you found your soulmate here. You would _never_ leave this city unless the people you love are leaving it too.

“I am not going back, Minho, I’m sorry.” You shook your head. “I am good here.”

Minho was quick to frown at you. “Good here?” He said, his voice suspicious and almost condescending. “(Name), people here can’t do what we can. You can’t explore your potentials here, and that is a huge waste when you come from such a strong family.”

“Who cares about my magic if I am going to be miserable for the rest of my life?” You reasoned as you stepped up to him. “I am better here. At least no one is trying to exploit my family’s legacy here–how can you even ask me that? My uncle is in a coma, do I need to remind you that he _was_ your friend?”

He opened his mouth to speak, his brows narrowed in frustration that you had dared to bring up his friendship with your uncle. But his eyes shifted when a certain boy walked up behind you and tugged at your shirt. You were pulled back from Minho, a hand soon wrapped protectively around yours as Jisung threw a worried glance between you and Minho.

“What’s going on…?” He asked quietly, frowning at you.

“Nothing, don’t worry,” you waved it off with a soft smile. “He’s just a friend from my hometown.”

Jisung widened his eyes in shock. He was not expecting to see another magic user, especially one who has a history with you. Turning over to take another look at Minho, his surprised expression faded into a timid one when he found Minho staring at him in thoughts.

Minho’s eyes shifted down to your hands and he raised a brow, a smirk of contempt reaching up to his cheeks when he saw the faint string linking you both together.

You kept talking about hating the council, but there was an even bigger reason why you refused to leave this city, wasn’t there?

“I see,” he hummed. “You won’t leave this city because of your little soulmate over here?”

A breath hitched in your throat. Minho sounded threatening, almost, as if he was plotting something in his head. You couldn’t be too sure; you would love to give yourself the benefit of the doubt that he still, with the childish part of him, cared about you. But your mind was being paranoid, too paranoid, that something would happen to Jisung if you accept his assumption here, so you didn’t.

Jisung snapped his head to you when you quickly snatched your hand away from him and crossed your arms. A momentary confusion rose within his chest at your sudden action; he did not feel good about the fact that you moved away when Minho mentioned soulmates, he did not like that at all.

“He is not my soulmate,” you said, glaring at Minho.

Jisung still looked confused, not so much hurt over the fact that you’ve just declared his worst nightmare. Perhaps you had a reason for it, perhaps you were just lying to Minho to protect him from the amount of damage your kind of people would do to people like him. He clenched his fists together, wishing for his assumption to be true.

“I can see your soulmate strings, (Name),” Minho said, gesturing to your hand.

You licked your lower lip, annoyed but slightly relieved that you have thought of a way to deflect that statement just in case the situation as such arose.

“It is fake. I put it on manually because this bastard won’t stop asking me about soulmates, and I wasn’t about to waste my time finding his for him,” you said, keeping your wavering voice down to make your reason all the more convincing. “I made a mistake, shouldn’t have said I was the one, now he won’t leave me the hell alone.”

Jisung looked betrayed now. His brain processed it too quickly that he missed the moment of denial he should have felt to keep these emotions down and guarded. His hand flew up to his pinky and he pinched it, tears rushing up to his eyes and heat rushing to his cheeks. How could it all be fake? You were lying, you have to be lying.

Oh god, he would give everything for it all to be a coverup story.

Ignoring the conversation you were having with Minho, he grabbed you by your shoulder and turned you around to face him. Your eyes were colder than they had ever been as you looked at him, and his heart shrunk beneath his ribs, shattering quickly.

“(Name)–“ His voice failed to sound out properly. “Please tell me you’re lying.”

You forced yourself to stay as rigid as possible. No clenched fists, no clenched jaws, no hardened gaze or teary eyes; just a plain, emotionless expression. Any form of reaction would possibly give you away, and you could not have that.

Even though you had to turn yourself inside out to have to be so mean to Jisung, your throat burning and your eyes hollowed out in blindness, it was all done to make sure he would not become leverage.

“I’m not,” you said. “You aren’t my soulmate, and I wouldn’t want you to be my soulmate.”

Jisung’s hand slipped from your shoulders then. He couldn’t even choke up a sob, he was just so heartbroken and disappointed that he refused to cry in front of you, but his eyes were shaky and his body trembled, nonetheless. And without even saying another word to you, he turned around and left you to stand there alone.

You fought the urge to hold onto him, to hold him back and tell him the truth. You needed to deal with someone else at the moment, you could find Jisung later… you _will_ find Jisung later.

Minho took a few steps back when it looked as if you were preparing to lung yourself at him. He raised his brows at you, his smirk long gone and was replaced with an unsatisfied arch of his lips. He hummed lowly, not at all comforting the way he had been during the first seconds of your reunion.

“Your vulnerability is showing, (Name),” he said. “Until today, you still can’t lie to me.”

“Fuck you!” You shoved his chest. “How could you do this to me!”

“This is not the place for you, (Name),” Minho said. “Back there, people can take care of you and you can properly wait for your uncle to heal up. People like you and I don’t belong here!”

You clenched your fist, deciding not to make another drastic movement in order not to attract attention. Instead, you walked up next to him and you spoke, with menace in your unsteady voice that showed Minho just how much he had screwed your entire life over.

“You’re wrong, people like _you_ don’t belong here,” you told him. “I earned a place here. This is my home now and I am never going back to that Hellhole.”

Without waiting for him to respond, you spun on your heels and flee the scene, your eyes shifting desperately in hopes to find where Jisung could be. It was a stupid idea, you knew; the number of people roaming and the time you’ve wasted letting him move farther away had reduced the percentage of you being able to find him quicker, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

You were willing to do anything to track him down and speak to him.

After minutes of spinning around in a circle in this shopping maze, you have opted for the easier way out—you pulled at him by the soulmate string.

You were there before you knew it, running after where the string was leading you and finding yourself at an emptier part of the shopping area. You slowed down to catch your breath then, your hands on your knees as you inhaled and exhaled rapidly. When you were finally done, you sat back up straight and called out for his name.

Jisung froze on the spot. It was just a habit to respond whenever you called out to him, but he didn’t have to do that anymore. You have made your point, as much as he didn’t want to believe it. The anger flared within him when you shamelessly called him again and he decided to not even spare you a glance, he just kept walking away from you.

Feeling dejected that he didn’t stop but understanding why he didn’t, you tried to jog up to him as you yelled out for him to hear you out.

“Wait a second, Jisung! Can you just stop walking and hear me out?” You said, moving closer to him only to have him move farther away from you.

You stopped on your tracks then, still tired from all the rushing you did when you were trying to find him; you felt hopeless, like you were once again being left alone in the world as his back got smaller.

Was that how Jisung felt like when you lied to him just then, you wondered?

Jisung shook off his curiosity when you stopped calling for him, and while he was still infuriated at your words, he found himself to be disappointed that you gave up so quickly. 

Some part of him still wanted you to care enough to explain everything, whatever the explanation might be. He probably wouldn’t feel like listening to it but it was the action that counted.

He took another step then, and he was quickly forced to a stop as he felt a tug at his legs. Glancing down at it with furrowed brows, his eyes widened at the glowing strings wrapped around his ankles, causing his immobility.

Magic, he knew, it was your magic. You and your fucking magic. His blood boiled just by looking at it—god, he has never been this mad at you before, he was afraid of what he would say at such a heated time like this.

When you finally released him, he turned around with glazed eyes and stomped over to you with an accusing finger. “What the hell–how dare you use magic on me?” He asked, annoyed and utterly fed up. “Aren’t you done playing around with me now? Don’t you think this is too much?”

You shook your head immediately, realizing you have made a grave mistake. “I’m so sorry but how else am I supposed to get you to slow down?” You said, pleading for him to hear you out.

Jisung furrowed his brows at you, his eyes mercilessly cold and hurtful as he glared at you. “That doesn’t give you the right to use it on me. I should be able to walk away from you whenever I want to,” he said. “What are you going to do if I don’t hear you explain, huh? Kill me? Are you going to kill me or perhaps ruin my life?”

“I’m not going to–“

“Just cut it out, (Name), okay?” He cut you off with a frown, his hands tightening on the straps of his bag. “I’m not going to bother you anymore. If you want to go back to your city then leave, I don’t want to be a fake reason why you don’t.”

Oh, he has all the right to be mad. You knew that to heart. You hurt his feelings, deeply enough for him to churn himself over and act like this. But knowing that you didn’t mean what you said earlier made it feel as if he didn’t have to say all those things to you.

This felt unnecessary, something that could have been prevented but you weren’t smart nor brave enough to do so. This was your fault, entirely.

When you opened your mouth to call out for him again, your voice didn’t work.

* * *

Seungmin could feel your presence around the school again. And he thought if he could feel it out of all people, Jisung had probably felt it too.

Turning over to look at his friend, his expression remained neutral and unbothered as he watched Jisung point at something on his phone and made Felix laugh. He breathed out a mildly annoyed sigh; Jisung was distracting himself, and he made everyone distract him with what had happened after only mentioning it once.

While Hyunjin and Felix were dubious about the situation, they were very supportive people who still jumped on the train of silence very quickly if it meant to make Jisung feel better.

But not talking about it wasn’t making him feel better, not pointing out the fact that Jisung had given you zero to no chance to explain yourself, despite your several attempts to contact him after that afternoon, was not making him feel any better.

If anything, he was only more hung up on what could have been the truth and what didn’t have to be a broken relationship.

“I think you guys should go ahead first, I forgot something in my locker,” Seungmin said once he looked away from the other end of the street where you usually came from.

“Huh? Why? We can just wait here for you, it won’t take you that long,” Hyunjin said, raising a brow at him.

Seungmin shrugged. “I figured I can find my homeroom teacher on the way to talk about my grade.”

“Seungmin, your grades are fine,” Jisung huffed out in faint annoyance.

He hadn’t been able to study well, nor has he really been able to study at all. His bedroom had long lost its comfortability; it was just a cell of memories with you, trapping him in and torturing him every single night. He still hasn’t rolled up the mattress on the floor and he refused to wash the shirts you’ve worn before.

No matter how many times he told himself to wipe you away from his life, he still hesitated with being loud at night or opening his eyes in the morning knowing that you won’t already be awake next to him.

Leaving you was so easy for him. He just had to walk away. Now that it was finally time to stay away and forget about you, Jisung was caught in a huge slump.

“You can say that because your grades have been going downhill ever since–“ Seungmin clasped his mouth shut at the glare Hyunjin threw him. He glared right back before looking at Jisung again. “–ever since you left (Name).”

Felix visibly tensed at his menacing tone, his fingers fumbling with each other nervously as he glanced between Jisung and Seungmin.

This has been an on-going argument between those two; Seungmin straightforwardly pointing out how stupid Jisung was for not letting you explain, thus losing someone important and causing his life to go into a tragic failure, while Jisung retorted the accusations continuously despite knowing his friend wasn’t entirely in the wrong.

“I left them for good reasons,” Jisung retorted, dropping his arms to his sides and glaring at Seungmin. “You weren’t there to see what happened.”

“That’s good for you. If I was there then at least I can convince you of how stupid you are being,” Seungmin said with an accusing glare.

“I’m not going to take that kind of attitude from you,” Jisung huffed out in disbelief, shaking his head and turning away from him.

Seungmin watched as the other two reluctantly followed suit, their mouths moving to spill out comforting and deescalating words. He watched as the three left the school area before looking around, his eyes squinted in concentration. He couldn’t even be sure if you were really here or not, but he felt the obligation to give it a try anyway.

In some tiny ways, he had missed your presence around the group, and he absolutely hated the idea of leaving that petty map argument unresolved.

“(Name)?” He called out loudly, standing on his spot and looking around, feeling like an absolute idiot. “You can come out if you’re here.”

A ghostly breeze brushed past his face, blowing at his bangs to caress his eyes. Seungmin closed his eyes at the wind, his lips pursed into a gentle frown. The footsteps came before his sight, slowly and unsurely stopping in front of him.

Seungmin opened his eyes to find you looking at him, your hands clasped together in front of your chest; he softened. You looked the same, understandably, it has only been a couple of weeks since he last saw you, but ultimately you appeared to be exhausted.

His hand paused in mid-air when he was about to brush at a piece of your hair away from your face, his movement stuttering before he clenched his fist and let it drop back to his side. You looked down at his hand and back up at his face, your eyes widening slightly but they remained unreadable. Seungmin opened his mouth, wanting to speak but unable to because his mind was blanking out.

Eventually, he found it in himself to ask, his eyes sparking kindness as he spoke, “Have you been taking care of yourself?”

You shook out a breath, finding the willpower in yourself to breathe normally after so long. Every day felt like a knot in your chest, sucking in your oxygen and craving for your impending end. You missed the daily life you used to have; you missed having a place to go home to, you missed your friends, and you really missed being with Jisung.

“Ye–yeah. I… I work–I work…um…” you cleared your throat, your eyes blurring in a millisecond as you recalled how the past few weeks have treated you emotionally.

You could barely see Seungmin anymore and you knew you were crying because too many hot tears were rolling rapidly down your cheeks.

Seungmin wasn’t sure what he could do but he knew his heart ached to see you like this. The witty and independent friend he adored back then was swapped with someone in need of understanding. His hands moved again, still filled with hesitation but he was much more determined to give you the comfort you should have received from all three of your friends.

Grabbing you by the shoulders, he slowly stepped up to wrap you in an embrace.

Your senses haven’t processed far enough to hug him back yet, all you did was cry into his chest and stain his uniform with droplets. The foreign concept of having arms wrapped tightly around your torso coming back to you after Jisung wasn’t around to randomly give you attack hugs anymore.

You just knew you needed the warmth and Seungmin was giving it to you.

Seungmin was the first one to give it to you.

He waited a while for you to calm down, his hands continuously patting at your back as his grip remained as tight as ever. When your cries finally faltered, he cleared his throat to clear the awkwardness only he felt in his chest and he joked, “I was about to ask you to not cry too long because I’m not very good at handling these things.”

“Don’t worry, I am not that good at handling crying people either,” You mumbled with a low, raspy voice. Your cheek was pressed against his shoulder and your face looked up at the sky, you could feel the breathing on his neck and it really calmed you down. 

As your arms finally went around his back to return the embrace, you frowned. “I’m so sorry for crying on your shirt.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Seungmin shrugged quickly. “It’s not like I can’t wash it.”

You laughed to yourself, nudging your cheek against him as you slowly hiccuped your breaths away. Seungmin surely came to the rescue like this; you never thought he would be the one to approach you first.

Hell, you didn’t think any of them would choose to talk to you after what Jisung had possibly told them. This encounter really took you by surprise and you didn’t hate it.

“How–“ you cleared your throat. “How is Jisung doing?”

Seungmin pulled away from you then, his eyes filled with sympathy for you but just a tinge of anger for Jisung. He sent you a shrug, shaking his head. “He is in denial. He isn’t doing well but he refuses to believe he made the wrong choice of not listening to you explain yourself.”

You heaved a sigh, looking away and furrowing your brows. You stopped trying to get him to listen after a while, sometimes you felt remorse for giving up and other times you felt hatred towards yourself for acting so irresponsibly desperate.

You failed to know it was for a good reason; you were latching onto the hope that Jisung would understand if you explain everything, that he would see why you did what you did and forgive you.

You were hoping Jisung would love you again.

“I was really trying to make sure no one is going to come for him,” you explained quietly. “If you had been there, or Felix or Hyunjin, I would have pretended not to know any of you either. Those people… I don’t want to let them use my loved one against me ever again, so I won’t let them know I have any.”

Seungmin nodded quickly. “Yeah, I believe you.”

You perked up at him, your eyes glassing over with surprise and hope. Upon seeing your reaction, he could only give you a shrug, as if what he said was only the most sensible truth.

“Yeah? I mean, if you have watched enough television shows, you would know how these things usually go,” he said. “Jisung is so stupid. He spend so much time pawning over anime yet he still can’t grasp the misunderstanding trope.”

You huffed out a laugh, feeling the weight of the world lift off your shoulders when Seungmin said he trusted you and your instincts. Reaching out to give him a hug, taking the boy by surprise, you squeezed him tightly and said, “Thank you for believing in me, Seungmin.”

He returned the hug briefly. “I’m not believing in you, I’m just believing in the truth.”

“God, you were doing so well,” you rolled your eyes when you finally moved away, scoffing at the fact that Seungmin would probably never admit that he could be a nice person sometimes.

“Yeah, well, somebody has to,” he said, his gaze hardening in annoyance for a brief moment before they returned back to his usual indifferent look. “If your soulmate is too stupid to do that then I guess your friend will have to suffice.”

You smiled at him, a genuine smile that held no ill-will or sarcasm. You just looked glad to have Seungmin around to give you the break you desperately needed and didn’t know where to begin looking for. 

And surprisingly, you accepted his help despite not being one to owe people anything. Perhaps your instinct told you to let your guard down with Seungmin since, well, he wouldn’t think much of it, anyway.

“Are you going to hug me again–you look like you plan to hug me again,” Seungmin suddenly said then, pointing a finger at you and back at him. “Please don’t do it, I can only handle so many hugs at a ti–I’m kidding!”

He reached out to pull you back from leaving your spot. You rolled your eyes when he did so, letting him settle you back in front of you and crossing your arms in front of your chest with a deadpan look. 

The day Seungmin openly accepts affection would probably be the day the world turns upside down, and it infuriated you to think that perhaps the day may never come.

“What now? Don’t you have somewhere else to go? Maybe a tutoring center or something?” You asked when he didn’t speak.

Seungmin licked his lower lip, unsure why he held you down. It wasn’t like him to do this just so he could bid you a proper farewell. He rubbed his hands together, trying to recognize the thoughts he was having in regards to your situation; there was something he thought he ought to do aside from just comforting you.

“I…” he tilted his head to the side before looking up at you. “Do you want to stay over at my place?”

You have been through this before. The same question, with the same resistance from you. “No, I am okay,” you waved your hand. “I picked up another night shift at the convince store tonight anyway. But if you want, I can meet you here in the morning, I have another shift at the coffee shop tomorrow morning.”

“You’re busy,” Seungmin laughed bitterly. If only he could scream at Jisung about it; telling him about you overworking yourself, about you not being able to sleep in a familiar bed, and then watch the guilt hit him like a truck that would never move its spot.

“I am, but I don’t hate being busy,” you smiled.

He exhaled quietly, his lips pursing at the silent connotation. It was probably the only thing keeping you alive right now, the fact that you had things to do and to distract yourself with. Seungmin had no idea what it would feel like to lose a soulmate, but he reckoned it would be fairly terrible, not to mention you and Jisung were two soulmates in love with each other.

“Meet me here tomorrow morning, I’ll bring you something to eat,” he said. “My mom made another basket of those bread loaf again so I can bring you some.

You widened your eyes after a moment of thought, gasping. “The ones with the butter–oh my god, please! Did you tell her I love those?”

“Uhh, not really.” Seungmin scratched the back of his head. “Everyone I mention someone who isn’t Hyunjin, Felix, and Jisung, she assumed I’m dating the person. And I really don’t feel like playing it off like we are dating just so I don’t have to explain anything.”

“I will choose to not take that as an insult.”

“You should.”

“Have you ever been punched to the sky before, Seungmin?”

He held up his hands then, taking a few steps back. “No, and I would like to never try that.”

You smirked at him, enjoying the little banter you guys had for a good moment before you sighed. “I think I should go now,” you said, looking to the side. “I want to get dinner before I start my shift, and maybe sleep a little.”

“Oh… yeah, of course,” he said, nodding. “Bread loaf tomorrow, with butter.”

You smiled, moving in to give him a one-armed hug and words of gratitude, then you moved away and waved him a quick goodbye. Seungmin stayed on the spot before, after a quick second, he called out to stop you.

“Hmm?” You turned around, raising a brow.

He looked at you, his eyes somehow wiser than a moment ago. “Jisung is still in love with you, I hope you know that,” he said. “He is just mad at you for now, but when he gets the anger out of his head, he will come running back to you. Please give him a chance when he does.”

You didn’t know if he was only saying it to be nice to you or if he was telling the truth. Both had a fair amount of possibility, and you weren’t confident enough to turn a blind eye on one of them. Either way, his words were very much appreciated at a tough time like this.

“Thank you,” you said. “And Seungmin… I will always take Jisung back, no matter what.”

* * *

Seungmin gave your back a giant smack when you choked on the bread loaf he handed you. He was looking at you with faint concern, most of what took up his eyes were the exhaustion of being completely done with you devouring the bread despite having no one stealing it from you. 

Looking around him, he almost wanted to hide at the way certain students looked at you both.

As you promised, you met up with him at the school’s front gate. Your eyes lit up when you saw his unamused expression, something he scrunched out because you were only a few minutes late, but your happiness mostly catered towards the plastic bag of evenly cut bread loaf in his hands.

“Can you slow down? No one is taking your bread and you are embarrassing me,” he muttered as he screwed open the water bottle for you.

You grinned up at him before chucking down a giant gulp, the liquid unsatisfyingly melting in with the already soft bread and washing away the sweetness of the butter. Seungmin grabbed the bottle from you as you started to munch on the bread again, his eyes softening a little when you moaned in delight.

“Your mother is a kitchen goddess,” you complimented. “Tell her I said that.”

“You go tell her yourself.” He frowned.

“And feel bad about not accepting your help when you try to stop me from leaving your home?”

You raised a brow, your words muffled by the bread in your mouth. You ignored the disgusted gaze Seungmin flashed you for speaking with your mouthful as you gulped down the food and shook your head. “No, thank you. I can live without that.”

“Did you just assume I wanted to help you or were you being self-centered again?” Seungmin rolled his eyes as he asked, shifting on his weight.

“I didn’t assume you wanted to help me, you asked yesterday if I want your help,” you retorted. “And you gave me bread loaf because you’re afraid I won’t have time to eat breakfast, didn’t you?”

“God, can you eat any uglier?” He scolded, his hand fumbling across his pants to find some tissues to get rid of the bread crumbs at the corner of your mouth you were too busy eating to notice.

He groaned in frustration when he emptied out his pocket and found nothing, so he pulled at his blazer sleeve instead and swiped it at the corner of your mouth. “And no, I gave you bread loaf because I think you’re broke and you can’t afford a bread roll for your life.”

“Hey, I have more part-time jobs than you have classes, you ass–“ You were cut off when Seungmin’s eyes casually shifted to the side and widened.

You didn’t know but standing steps and steps behind you, facing your back, was a wide-eyed Jisung. Judging by the way his eyes were trained on the back of your head, unable to let go, he had recognized you. Seungmin wasn’t sure what to do for a second. There were too many possibilities to how this would pan out.

Jisung could walk away silently and not say a word, which he doubted. Or you could turn around and catch eyes with him, and he could either walk away or finally get over his stubbornness to talk to you. Or he could act like nothing was going on and send you off your way, never once letting you turn around to find Jisung standing there.

“Seungmin? Hey? Kim Seungmin? Seungmin!”

He looked away from Jisung, who was still standing frozen on his spot, and he scrunched up his nose to flash you an annoyed glare. He fished out his phone and glanced at it, pretending to look at the time. Sighing in defeat, he looked back up at you.

“Hey, I have to go. I want to get the class started with handing in their homework early,” he said, jabbing his thumb towards the school.

You perked up and nodded. “Yeah, of course. Do I see you after school today?”

“Uh… I’ll text you about it, I might have club activity.” He replied, smiling faintly as he shoved the plastic bag in his hands to you. “Here, you can have the rest for lunch.”

“Ahh! Thank you–okay, don’t rush me!” You swatted his hands away when he tried to push you forward to where you were supposed to be headed. Then you grabbed his hand, forcing him to look at you.

For a moment, the panic in Seungmin’s chest loosened at the way you were hopefully glancing up at him. “Text me, okay? I want to see you again.”

“Yeah… sure…” He nodded. “Now go, you won’t get employee of the year at this rate.”

Giving him one last shove, you left for your work. And Jisung watched you leave, he watched you walk farther and farther away from him with a terrible, terrible ache in his chest. He couldn’t even see your face, but just by looking at your back was enough to send his longing off the cliff.

Without himself even realizing it, his arms had started trembling at his sides from how much he had missed you these past few weeks.

It was all he could think about as he marched towards Seungmin, his eyes wide with tears brimming at the falling line—he missed you, he missed you, he missed you so much he couldn’t think, sleep, nor breathe. 

There has not been a single empty moment without you infiltrating his head, taunting him of his misery and his desperate yearning for you.

Jisung wanted you back. He wanted you back with him, sleeping and eating and laughing and talking; it was all he wanted.

Why does Seungmin get to talk to you? Why does Seungmin get to banter with you? Why does Seungmin get to hold your hand and take care of you while he sulked on his bed every single night?

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing–how could you do this to me?” Jisung’s irrational anger was getting the worst of him. He pushed Seungmin on the chest, causing the other boy to stumble back in startlement. But despite the off-guarded look on Seungmin’s face, Jisung still mercilessly glared at him, his voice shook when he spoke, “You have no idea how much I– _fuck_ , why are you trying to take (Name) away from me?”

“I don’t have to do that, you already did!” Seungmin growled out his retort, his own frustration seeping into his voice as well. “You lost them the second you walked away that day!”

Jisung pulled back with a gasp, his mind short-circuiting at Seungmin’s words. He hadn’t thought he already lost you, that thought hadn’t occurred to him yet. Surely, you two were not seeing each other at this moment, but he didn’t think it had led to a point where he had completely lost you in his life.

Seeing his dejected state, Seungmin cursed under his breath at the lie he spilled at the impulse of the moment. Jisung better not fucking believes him. If you had a small chance of getting Jisung to hear you out before, you had lost it now because he made a mistake of indirectly telling him you had moved on.

“Hey… guys…” Felix’s small hand placed itself on Jisung’s shoulder and he gently tugged at his friend.

Without even caring about where Felix had popped out from, Jisung licked his lower lip and kept his eyes on the ground, his mind still racing at what was told to him. His nervous habit of rubbing at his pinky finger kicked in as Felix pulled him away and walked him through the school gate. Hyunjin and Seungmin following suit as they boiled each other with harsh words.

The four of them walked side by side but they were divided into two teams of people. One heartbroken and the other infuriated, but both of them had only ever wanted good for one person: you.

The four walked along the road to the school building, their surrounding still recognizable until suddenly, everyone around them vanished in a blink of an eye.

The students running into the school doors, the groups of friends chatting just beside them, the boy who was reading the news on his phone—gone, everybody was gone. There were only the school building and the trees planted in the yard left for them to see, and the silence of this place was also eerily deafening.

They weren’t at school anymore, they knew.

Jisung held Felix’s hand when he felt it reach to him, and like all three of the others, he too looked around the place in confusion. He knew this place but it didn’t feel familiar enough for it to be the high school he has attended for almost four years.

“Greetings, children.”

The boys all looked behind them at once, their bodies turning in unison at the old man standing in front of them. He was all suited-up under the hot weather but he didn’t appear to be uncomfortable under the humid air. 

Unsettlingly, he stood with his head held high and his hands behind his back as if he was hiding something.

Taking a glance at all four of them, he let a condescending smirk slip onto his face before he finally spoke again. “You guys are all friends of (Name), correct?”

They all felt reluctant to answer, not wanting to accidentally get you into trouble as the man standing before them looked nothing short of dangerous and shady.

Judging by their empty surrounding, the man standing before them was no ordinary human, and the boys weren’t stupid enough to not be able to decipher all the possibilities of where this could go. Most of which would result in dissatisfaction among the friend group.

Seungmin was the first one to speak up, his shoulders shrugging as he shook his head. His voice was leveled when he lied, trying his best not to give away that he was nervous.

“I don’t know them.” He shook his head. “I don’t think my friends know them either. Maybe you’ve got the wrong person, sir.”

The man stared him down at the answer as if looking through him and analyzing his brain to see if he was telling the truth. He frowned with a heavy arch of his brow later, and then he hummed after taking another look at Seungmin.

“You were talking (Name) just minutes ago, boy,” he said as he revealed his hands. His slender fingers moved into a weird gesture in preparation, then he elegantly huffed. “You might have use for me.”

It happened before any of them could see it. It took one flick of the man’s wrist and a short spell before a dark, solid silhouette with glowing purple eyes ran out from behind his back. 

It ran fast, faster than any of them have ever seen a human being run, and after a millisecond of it stopping abruptly before Hyunjin, it brought its fist towards his poor chest for a strong blow.

Felix’s eyes widened, a scream of terror leaving his lips when he saw his friend got thrown all the way across the front yard of the school and landing at the stairs. Without even turning back to the man, he quickly let go of Jisung and ran after the fallen boy, his breath hitching with each step.

“What the fuck did you do?” Jisung asked, prepared to stomp up at the man but paused when he raised his fingers and snapped.

Just like that, another barrier was created to shield the three from the outside world. Felix and Hyunjin were gone, leaving only Jisung, Seungmin, and the brutal man standing together. The atmosphere was even quieter with the new barrier, something echoey like a giant basement.

They could still vividly see their school’s building and the plants along the path to its entrance. The sky and the sun were still there, resting on top of their heads.

“I do not wish to waste my time here. I have the task given by the council to collect (Name) and head back to our city, and I would appreciate your cooperation,” the man spoke.

Seungmin furrowed his brows. God, he did not expect that plan to backfire on him. If he wasn’t scared before, he was now. And it wasn’t just anxiety that riddled his mind, fear became a strong component as well.

Jisung, who was standing next to him, felt just about the same horror as he looked at the man. Could he be the man you told him about? The one who probably took part in your family’s tragedy? He clenched his fists, the frustration painted in his eyes only a fraction of all the pent-up feelings boiling inside him. What did he want with you? What would he do if he managed to bring you out of the city?

Neither of them wanted to help the man, but really, what was there to do? They both saw what the man could do with just a wave of his fingers, and this man probably has years of experience dealing with adults far more sinister in the head than two random, teenage human boys.

It was a losing fight, both in strength and smarts.

“What is to say you won’t hurt us anyway?” Seungmin asked then, hoping to stall the time, whatever it was worth.

“Whether I hurt you or not depends entirely on (Name)’s choice. I am not here to waste my time playing with mundane children such as yourself. However, I am here to collect a special member of our council,” the man spoke with ease, cracking his fingers and rubbing his hands together. “If they won’t come with me, then I will have to hurt one of you. And I need aid in picking one of you so do answer me–”

The boys waited cautiously for the question.

“–which one of you is more important to them?”

The man furrowed his brows when none of them spoke. He was starting to get annoyed that he might have to torture the answer out of these loyal, little souls, but he quickly took notice of the awkward tension that flooded between the two of them, and he hummed with intrigue.

They didn’t know, they genuinely had no idea. He wasn’t sure if it was because they both lacked the confidence to deem themselves more important, or if there were any other underlying concerns.

Frankly, he did not care.

While the question was, in itself, a rather sensitive topic among these two.

Jisung with his burning paranoia that his value in your heart has lost completely and Seungmin has already taken his spot; Seungmin being fully aware that Jisung would not be able to handle the man picking anyone but him in a situation like this because his mind had been continuously shattered by the fear of you returning to his side.

But this wasn’t a petty competition sprouted from a misunderstanding, not anymore.

Whoever gets chosen here would be the reason why you give up everything and return to your traumatic home, because they knew you would definitely give yourself up for them. 

Besides, being pulled into a situation like this would not guarantee safety. There could be a chance that they would be left for dead; not essentially dead yet, but close to the brink of it.

This was serious, and it was a situation that would result in some kind of loss no matter what kind of outcome.

“I am their soulmate, s–sir,” Jisung stepped up and said, causing the man to look at him. He pinched at his pinky finger, hoping it would reveal the string to the magic-user in front of him. “If that is any indication… and I… I would like to think (Name) had once loved me as well.”

“I can see your string. Albeit, I cannot guarantee where the other end ties to, but I will take the benefit of the doubt,” he mumbled. “However, once? Do they not love you now?”

Jisung shook his head as he sucked in a breath, a remorseful expression on his face. “I… I don’t know…”

The man turned away from him upon his useless response and he raised his brows at Seungmin. “Soulmates serves no value if two do not hold love for each other. It may as well just be a strand of string, waiting to be broken,” he stated as-a-matter-of-factly. “So I assume you are the more important one?”

“I…” Seungmin looked to the side, concerned. Jisung was already dejected enough. Plus, he highly doubted he was more important than Jisung when it comes to your value ranking. 

But if Jisung got chosen and taken away, and if he got hurt in the process, would you be able to handle that? Would you be mad at him for not protecting your soulmate?

Would he be mad at himself for not protecting his best friend?

Seungmin looked up at the man and gave him a firm nod, but before he could say anything else, Jisung cut him off.

“He’s not, leave him out of this.” Jisung stepped forward and held his arm out to keep Seungmin behind him. He stared at the man firmly, standing on his ground. “He is just a friend. Me and (Name) took a little break, which is why you saw them talking just then. They usually arrive at school with me.”

“Look, sir, I don’t know if you understand how human relationships works,” he added. “Yes, we had an argument. But just because people are mad at each other does not mean they stopped loving each other, and I still–“ he breathed out. “I am still in love with (Name), as they are with me.” _Hopefully_.

He turned back to look at Seungmin and a bitter smile slowly blossomed on his face. It said a lot of things: you’re my best friend, I’m sorry for yelling at you, I’m scared but I’m not going to let you get in trouble, thank you for taking care of the love of my life when I was too stupid to do it, I hope we can all get out of this, let’s go the cat café again when we do. 

It was a thousand unspoken words strung into one simple facial expression.

And Seungmin felt a disgustingly unfamiliar pull at his chest, a harsh punch and a strong ache that spreader through his body. It magnified when a hand clamped on top of Jisung’s shoulder, yanking his friend backward so quickly that he wasn’t even allowed to reach his hands out to grab him.

“Thank you for your cooperation, children.” The man said, his fingers ready in front of his chest as his gaze flickered briefly to Seungmin. “May you meet each other again, if all goes well.”

Seungmin closed his eyes when a strong gust of wind blew against his eyes and pricked at his skin. He held his arms out in front of him to block out the impact, and when he opened his eyes again, he was back to the world where Felix and Hyunjin were left in. And Jisung was gone.

* * *

The strings were starting to seep into your skin, but those clones were relentless in their pursuit of you.

You barely made it a couple of blocks down from the school before you got held back by the same, silhouette clones you remembered seeing years ago. It was the magic of one of the council members, the quiet but deadly one; you could never forget the way that ghastly man made you feel ever since you were younger—inferior, useless, and controlled.

Before they could even touch you, though, you had made a run for it while reaching into your bag for the box of strings you have decided to keep in your pocket on an occasion like this. 

And so the chasing game began with you turning corners around the district town, trying to fend off the clones that seemed to never run out of stamina.

You were forced to a corner quicker than you thought; curse the fact that you haven’t gotten any real practice when you stayed in this safer city. And due to their larger number, the fact that they can continuously turn into more of them, and how these clones possessed the knowledge the councilman does, you knew that if you tried to run, you would most likely be captured.

Any move needed to be calculated by you—what you do, where you go, where you look.

Standing in front of the shadowy clones that gathered by the only exit of this dead-end, you huffed out a grumble of frustration and decided to stand there for a while. You glanced down at your hand and quickly removed the strings you had wrapped around your forearm; they would not want to repeat the same mistake like last time and go through ripping it off when it was already rooted deep within.

Fumbling with the box in your hand, you flipped it open and frowned down. There were still a few wraps of strings left, but not good enough for you to feel content about your circumstance. You were going to have to moderate your usage for now; the second you run out, your downfall would come.

“What the hell are you brainless fucks doing here anyway?” You muttered to yourself as you glared at them.

Your hands worked independently so you could keep your eyes at the faceless clones, their transparent body unsettlingly a carbon copy of human flesh without the detailed parts and colors. When a spell left your lips, the pattered string flew and etched itself onto your forearm.

You repeated the movement with multiple different colored strings just in case you wouldn’t have time to run and cast a spell at the same time. Something for your strength, something for your speed, something for healing your body, and something to ease out your nervousness—your arms were soon wrapped in a spacious rainbow.

When you were finally done, you looked up at the clones and frowned. They really weren’t going to move unless you do, huh? Seemed like they already know you would put up a fight so they’d rather rest their energy and wait for you to advance first.

Fair enough, you could play that game. Even though you have gotten rusty throughout the last couple of years, you still knew how to throw a punch and dodge a few kicks.

“Alright, on a count of three I guess…” you muttered to yourself again as got into a bolting stance. “Three, two, one–“

A black orb appeared in mid-air before you could run yourself out of the alleyway. The orb expanded, dark and slimy liquid oozing out from its smooth corner and expanding it into a swirling portal.

Your eyes hardened at the familiar-looking man who walked out of the portal; he was just as you remembered—old, annoyed, and just overall a very unfortunate looking man. He was even more disgusting now that he has gotten ever more wrinkles on his pea-sized head.

“Asshole,” you called out, lowering your arms and relaxing your muscles for a brief moment. “You still look like shit.”

“(Name), as charming as ever, child.” The councilman paid you no more than an unamused frown. He looked around then, his clones all standing rigidly straight and lining up in a formation behind him. “I see you have been fighting my clones.”

“No, I have just been running away from them,” you retorted, somehow your mind reverted back to the younger days when you felt the need to never answer anything normally. There always has to be some venom in your words, something the adults get easily fed up with.

“You punched one of them.”

“It went in the way of my fist, I wasn’t at fault.”

“Still as disgraceful as well, I see.” He folded his hands together and raised his brows at you with all seriousness. “I am sure you could already guess why I am here or need I refresh your memories and tell you where we left off years ago?”

“No, I remember clearly how you killed my entire family and sent my uncle into a cursed coma,” you faked a smile at him as you said.

“That wasn’t just me, that was the decision of the entire party.” He pointed out.

“As if that makes it better.”

“If you’re going to feel vengeance then I would like to have it not focus entirely on my account.”

Oh, this fucker was just asking to be punched to the sky, wasn’t he? You would totally do it if he wasn’t a trained combatant who knew what he was doing. 

You have only been counting on your natural instinct, personal studies, and anything people like him had taught you in the little time they trapped you with council school.

This would hardly be a fair fight and you were not stupid enough to punch first.

“Go steal money from poor people,” you said, waving your hand, “I am not going anywhere with you. I am never going back to that fucking place ever again.”

The councilman stared at you for a moment, not thinking much but just doing so for the sake of being dramatic. He hummed after a moment, his voice low, and he clapped his hands together. “I have figured you would put up a fight with me, therefore I brought you a little gift,” he mused. “I do hope this can change your mind.”

Your furrowed brows faded gradually when he clapped his hands again. And walking out from directly behind him was another shadow clone of his. But what you paid attention to was not the clone itself, but the boy who was being held by the arm by it. He looked at you with apologetic eyes, with longing eyes, and he seemed to be trembling slightly.

“Jisung…” your voice dropped.

“Yes, yes, the claimed soulmate of yours…” he nodded. “Is it true? Is this one your soulmate?”

You looked up at him, licking your lower lip. You could lie again, but your heart was pulling at you not to do it in front of Jisung. The hurt he must have felt when he first heard you say that to Minho was devastating enough for him, he didn’t need to hear it again. Looking at Jisung, your eyes softened and you clenched your fist.

Fuck, you have missed him. You wanted nothing more than to run to him and engulf him in your arms. Darn that witchy looking man for blocking your way!

“Yes, yes he is,” you replied quietly.

“Good, I was afraid of the things I’d have to do if he had lied to me,” the man spoke with ease. Taking a step forward, he removed Jisung away from his clone and instead, slipped his slender fingers around the back of his neck, bringing him closer to you.

“Now, here is the deal, (Name). Come home with us and we will let him go,” he spoke, giving Jisung’s neck a threatening squeeze and causing the boy to gasp out a fearful breath.

“If you don’t, we will start with this thing over here, and the other three mundanes that you have trapped in the dimensional barrier. And need I inform you that the taller one took quite the heavy blow, it would be best if he gets sent to the hospital right away.”

Your shoulders slumped. A dimensional barrier; Hyunjin, Felix, and Seungmin could be as good as dead if they never get released from wherever location he has trapped them in, whether from imploding into insanity or simply from starvation.

He has everyone involved, this fucker.

“How do I know if you’re going to let my friends out once I agree?” You asked, glaring at the man with nothing more than a distant, chilling gaze.

“There is no point to keep holding up the dimension, it exhausts my magic,” he replied. “I do not wish to have anything to do with children like them either. I am only here for you.”

You couldn’t trust him but you have to, you have to let yourself believe that he would let everyone go eventually. All you had to do was go with him. Looking over at Jisung, who had on an unreadable on his face, your palpitating heart came to a quick halt at the recollection of all that has happened ever since you met him.

He has done so much for you, and you ended up hurting his feelings.

Perhaps you wouldn’t just be saving him from death if you left, you’d probably be saving him the trouble as well.

Sucking in a deep breath, you let your arms fall limp at your side and you nodded. “Okay,” you told him. “I’ll go. Just… I just need to talk to him for a little, please.”

The man looked at you suspiciously but his grip on Jisung’s neck has faltered. Gesturing towards the strings on your arms, he said, “Take those off first and I’ll release him.”

You hesitated but you did as he asked, unwinding the strings and letting them fall to the floor. As he promised, he gave Jisung a shove and the boy stumbled forward. 

Realizing that he was finally free, he glanced behind him at the intimidating group before his head snapped back at you. His heart broke when he looked at you, finding it hard to believe that you chose to accept the deal instead of fighting against it.

So you were just going to leave him here alone? You couldn’t do that. He already lost you once, he wasn’t planning on losing you again, and this time it could be for eternity as well. 

He could not bear the thought of missing you again, the thought of wondering if you were suffering somewhere else without him there to give you comfort. He could not handle going through the pain again.

You pursed your lips as he marched towards you, mistaking his harsh steps to be anger rather than a desperation to get to you faster.

“Look, Jisung, I’m so sorry–“ Your voice was muffled quickly, a slow intake of air running up your nose in surprise when Jisung grabbed your cheeks and pressed his lips against yours.

A content noise sounded from his throat. He should have done this earlier, why hadn’t he done this earlier? As if all those midnight daydreams he had when he watched you sleep in his room weren’t indication enough that he should have kissed you long ago.

Your lips were so soft, so gentle against his, and they were _your_ lips. He would love to kiss you every day, and he couldn’t let himself go.

If he let go now, you might never come back.

Your stomach churned and your chest burst in delight as he kissed you, his movement soft and passionate as if he wanted to get you to understand all the words he left unsaid on his lips. He wanted you to feel his love through the kiss, to make you remember you would be leaving him behind if you left. He wanted to make you change your mind.

His hands went down to grip yours tightly, bringing you closer to him and forcing you to take notice of not only his lips but everywhere that was warm about him.

When he pulled away, the aftermath was that you could barely open your eyes. He was looking at you, longingly as he would, and his voice could only whisper instead of speak.

“Please don’t leave me here. I’m so sorry for not listening to you, I believe you now. Please stay with me,” he breathed out, rubbing his thumbs across your knuckles as tears glossed over his eyes. “I love you, please.”

You looked at him fondly, with a tinge of bitterness laced beneath your saddened eyes. Pulling away from his hand, you reached it up to his cheek before they trailed up to his bangs. You brushed his hair away from his eyes, smiling at him.

“How have you been lately, Jisung?” You asked softly, “Have you been taking care of yourself?”

“No, I can’t stop thinking about you,” he replied, leaning into your touch. “I missed you every day.”

“I missed you every day too.” You stroked his lashes, seemingly trying to touch every part of his face in order to memorize him.

There was a sour feeling at the nape of your neck, a feeling you get when you were trying to hold back a fit of strong tears. This was not the kind of reunion you were hoping to get; yes to the kiss, no to everything else. “I’m so sorry.”

“No, please don’t say that,” he croaked out as he shook his head. “Don’t talk like you are going to leave me, please. Tell me you’ll stay here, find a way to stay here for me, please? I can’t–I can’t do this.”

He kept pleading you and your heart cracked with each ‘please’ he uttered out. You would give him anything he wanted but you felt stuck in this situation. All eyes were on you, you knew, if you so much as to try and make a wrong move, both of you could be dead.

“I’m so sorry, Jisung,” you said. “But you’re going to have to live without me for a little bit longer.”

“What if…” he exhaled, “What if I never see you again? What if you get stuck there?”

And what if you live your life to the fullest and get over him completely? What if you forget him? Could he bear the thought of you loving another, could he bear the thought of you possibly wedding and laying with somebody else?

Because it sure felt like he would be hung up on the fact that his soulmate was on the other side of the country when you should be with him, and he would miss you all over again, whether it was the solace he felt looking into your celestial eyes so much or the warmth of chatting about deep thoughts with you at night.

“Then I will make sure you forget about me,” you said.

An impatient cough sounded from the side and you furrowed your brows. Your time was up, it should have been up much earlier. Even then, the councilman’s generosity was not appreciated. 

Looking up at Jisung, you breathed out heavily and pressed your palm to his face.

“I love you,” he whispered again. “Please don’t leave me.”

Stop doing that, Jisung. You couldn’t let go when he says things like that.

With your hand still pressed against his soft cheek, your lips quirked downwards when he turned to his head to kiss your skin, and it hit you just how much leaving him would tear you apart. You tried really hard not to let your heart waver at the sight of him, you tried so hard to stay as strong as possible.

But Jisung—oh, _Han Jisung_. That precious, lovely boy; from his positive attitude to his tender voice to his selfless heart, he has taught you everything you knew and he has given you all that you have loved.

There has always been preciousness in being vulnerable and fragile, and you loved him with it as much as you could, today and tomorrow, and until the end of it all.

Now it was time for you to end it all.

“It’s time,” you said before letting your hand slip away from his face.

Jisung widened his eyes, his hand too slowly to grab onto yours when you turned on your heels and left his side. He couldn’t bring himself to do anything aside from standing on his spot, trembles taking over his body as your footsteps drowned him out.

You looked at the councilman, his pleasant expression sending a heated wave down your throat and you cursed him immensely with your heart. Sticking your hand into your pocket, your fingers fumbled with the remaining string you had stuck inside just a second ago and creating a pattern with just one hand, a skill you stressfully picked up during the last few weeks.

You don’t want to leave. No. You don’t fucking want to leave Jisung. And aside from the ability to be vulnerable and feel, Jisung—as well as Seungmin, and Hyunjin, and Felix—had all showed you that there is nothing so bad about going back to who you love at the end of the day.

Even after a petty argument about magic and maps, even after one of you accidentally got the other into a car crash, even if one of you reserved a table at a café on the worst possible day.

You breathed out a heavy sigh when you stopped in front of the councilman. One thing you learned about him from previous encounters, and through your rebellious tendencies back then, was that his clones fall when he falls. 

And even though he could transfer his injuries to his clones, you could just exhaust all of them to a point it would be hard for him to generate more.

It would really take a whole lot of speed for that, but anything to stay in this city. You weren’t going to miss petting cute cats and eat delicious bread loaf for anything.

“Okay, I’m ready.”

You smiled up at the councilman, and within a blink of an eye, your gaze was clouded over with coldness. 

“Phasmatos Angure Velotus, Imperium Viribus!” You chanted as you pulled your hands out of your pocket. The red strings around your forearm glowed and glowed, and before the elder could react to you, your fist met his jaw and he flew across the alleyway to hit the wall on the other side.

“That’s for hurting Hyunjin,” you muttered under your breath before quickly regained your position.

You took the chance to advance at his clones, who were still busy looking behind them to check on their host. The man would be back up in no time; you needed to either eliminate the clones he could store his pain into or at least exhaust them until most of them wouldn’t be a problem anymore.

Jisung watched as you landed a kick to the first shadowy figure, and then another, all the while trying desperately to add as many strings to your arm as possible for back-up. He wasn’t sure what else he could do at this point, it wasn’t like he could just join the fight and punch one of them?

Or could he? He tilted his head and his eyes rounded in thought. Sure, they were strong, as displayed just a while ago. But were they made of steel as well? Perhaps he could try and do some damage?

You slammed a clone to the concrete wall when you saw that it was trying to regenerate. You squeezed its neck and made sure you broke it before letting go. Turning around, it took you a moment to process the sight of Jisung creeping up behind one of the clones.

Your eyes widened as you moved forward, knowing fairly well his presence was probably detected, but before you could take a step forward, you were held back by both of your arms.

“I see you have made your point clear, (Name). And I must say, I am severely disappointed in your choice,” the councilman walked back to you both as if he hadn’t just got blown away and slammed against the wall. “Now that all subtlety is lost,” he eyed his alone that had Jisung by the neck. “Cut him.”

The grip on his neck forcefully tilted his face up, and what faced him was the clone’s hand that had morphed into a sharp edge. 

Damn, he had not anticipated that to happen. You magic-users really surprise and scare him with every new step. 

The almost humorous thought did not linger long in his mind when he felt a sharp pain cutting across his cheek, causing him to yell out in pain.

Your arms trembled at the sight, and the clones on either side of you seemed to know as their grips on you faltered in reluctance. Noticing the smallest change in their strength, you quickly turned to the side, slipping past one of them and kicking it at the back. It lunged forward, bringing the other clone with him and vanishing into the corner at your impact.

“Incendium!” You pointed at the clone that held Jisung by the neck, the sparks flowing in your red string jumping from the fabric and casting fire onto the clone’s skin. 

Noticing a presence at your side, you dodged just in time as the councilman tried to kick you in the chest, and you jumped back a few steps, just far enough to be away from the councilman.

“Phasmatos Tutella.” You waved your hand, causing a tight barrier to circle up around the man’s standing area. It zapped dangerously at his face, threatening to burn him into ashes if he so much as move an inch.

Panting heavily when you saw that he was trying to think up something to get out of the electrical ward you’ve built up around him, you quickly turned to Jisung and flicked your wrist. “Motus,” you said under your breath, bringing him over to you with a movement spell.

When he was finally within reach, you reached into your pocket and grabbed the remaining strings into your hand. Just a few more. You sighed as you threw the box away and picked out the purple string to cultivate a pattern. Jisung watched you nervously, his eyes glancing back at the elder and back at you as you finish up with the pattern.

You reached over his head and hugged him to you, a familiar spell leaving your lips. “Phasmatos Ianua Reclu.”

A portal appeared and wrapped itself around you both, sending you guys away from the alleyway and to a more remote area Jisung could not recognize. When you two landed on the ground, you finally gave yourself the time to catch your breath, panting in and out rapidly as your brows furrowed in exhaustion.

Jisung immediately leaned down to hold you up, letting you lean on his shoulder and patting your back to breathe. His eyes narrowed at your arms, multiple strings wrapped around your skin in pieces just enough for one spell.

You had chopped them all up carefully to be used; if he counted enough, there might be more than ten spells on each of your arm, draining your energy and your blood in a nightmarish speed.

“Oh god…” You coughed, leaning against Jisung’s shoulder for support.

He pressed you close to him despite the blood seeping down your arm. He was looking around in hopes to find a place to sit that wasn’t the dirty ground but it seemed that you really found the end of the world to teleport you both to. Supposed you had your reasons why for that; the weirder the place, the harder it would be to find you both.

“Fucking hated that man,” you groaned in frustration. “Made me read the most boring books I’ve ever read back then.”

“Well, I’m glad you get to kick his ass today,” Jisung giggled lowly, running his hand through your air and kissing the side of your head. You smelt of unpleasant sweat, but he couldn’t care less at this moment.

He hadn’t given himself the time to enjoy this, the rush of happiness that flooded through him when you suddenly fought the councilman back, indicating that you did choose to fight to stay with him after all. It was insane how overjoyed he was right now, right here with you, and he really hoped that this would be the end of it all so you guys could go back. 

He could return to school with his friends and you would all meet up at the end of the day again.

And he would go home with you again.

You pulled away with a laugh, looking up at him. Endearment rushed to the top of your head and your eyes started to fawn over Jisung’s face; the way he so tenderly stared at you made your heart leap. Your eyes grazed past the cut on his cheek then and you frowned. “I’m so sorry about this,” you said. “Hold still, okay?”

He did, effortlessly. He just wanted to stand still and stare, feeling you lightly tap his wound and listening to you chant a spell he couldn’t understand. He could do that for the rest of his life if allowed. 

And when he felt the open-cut seal up on his cheek, a cold but tingly sensation sewing his skin back up, he broke into a gentle grin.

“Did you really think I was going to leave you here?” You said, feeling your heart pump at his smile.

“You were really convincing back there,” he said with a pout. “And I was scared of you leaving me… I really was.”

You softened then, your grin dimming to a simple smile made only for him. Your eyes trailed past his nose to his lips and back up to his eyes. Jisung took notice of that, his hand tightening around your body as he slowly leaned in to capture your lips once again. 

His chest heaved in an exhale, relief rushing over his senses upon the taste of your sweetness. It was peaceful, he was at home no matter the scorching sun or the bloodied skin.

How great would it be if things could have stayed this way forever.

You two broke apart when you heard an unwelcomed cough. Turning to your side, you almost wanted to burst into a fed-up scream when you saw the councilman standing not too far away from you. He was at a distance, nonetheless, but that didn’t stop you from feeling anxious about his next step.

You stepped forward, covering Jisung with most of your body as you glared at the man.

“That was smart I must admit, and you have picked the right place to hide,” he said slowly as he took a few daunting steps forward. “But you’ve made a mistake of bleeding all over the floor, (Name). It isn’t hard to track you with my clones when the smell of your blood was so strong.”

You looked down at your arms, cursing at the way some of your strings had already seeped into your skin. You had been too concentrated on outside matters to care about how your flesh felt.

Looking at you with boredom, the councilman pointed at you then and he said, “I gave you a chance to leave peacefully but you’ve chosen the alternative.” He brought his hands in front of his chest and did a series of untraceable hand gestures; even if you did see them, you wouldn’t be able to decipher them anyway. 

“I hope you understand that you brought this upon yourself and your friends.”

He snapped his fingers and released a strong force field. You barely got your arms up to shield yourself when you were blown back a few feet off the ground, your back landing disgracefully on the ground when the hot wind ceased.

You groaned in pain, clutching the back of your head that seemed to have grazed the sharp edge of a small rock. Your finger stained with a little blood when you removed it, but as you regained your senses again, that happened to be the least of your worries.

You scrambled up and looked around you to find if Jisung, too, had suffered the impact of the wind. You cursed under your breath when you saw that he laid not too far away, his body curled with his back facing you.

Getting off the ground, you didn’t even spare the councilman a glance and you quickly made your way to the fallen boy, crouching down next to him.

“Shit, Jisung, are you okay–oh god.” Your breath hitched in your throat and your chest leaped after you turned him around and saw the gash across his sweater vest.

Blood was pouring out from the wound, soaking his black vest into an even darker shade of black and red. It must have been a deep wound as Jisung seemed to struggle to even speak, his eyes darting tiredly around before they met you in a desperate stare. Tears were spilling out of his eyes, the pain on his abdomen area a burning sensation he couldn’t forget.

He had no idea what happened. He just knew he got thrown off the ground, and suddenly the scorching pain stabbed him through his body, and then he fell. He hadn’t even got the energy to scream in pain, his eyes were just crying it all out silently for him.

“Shit, shit, shit–okay, it’s okay,” you mumbled to him as you pressed his hands to his wound and eyed him to stay there. You moved your hands around your pockets then, looking for any extra strings you could use that hasn’t already rooted deep into your arm.

When you found none in your pocket, you resulted in taking off your bag and rummaging through all your things, hoping to find even a strand.

“I realize you are never going to succumb to the council willingly so long as he, or any of your friends, exist on this Earth,” the councilman spoke as he approached you two. “If they are the reasons why you stay, then I shall eliminate those reasons. Then, I suppose you would willingly come with me.”

His words fell on deaf ears. You couldn’t even bring yourself to get angry at him, you were too desperate trying to find anything that could heal Jisung up. 

The councilman hummed, mildly intrigued when he saw that you suddenly stopped trying to find anything more to use and instead had started to try and see if you could still use the strings that already had a spell bounded with them.

To chant the wrong spell on a string that has already been used, plus contrasting the purpose with its color. Painful, he could almost shudder at the amount of magic your strings are going to suck out of you. Even if you did manage to heal Jisung up, you would almost be dead by then with the amount of blood loss and the vines stuck into your skin.

All of that for one boy. Soulmates or not, was Jisung really worth all your blood and tears?

“Your strings have sunken into your skin, my child, your body is bleeding all over you and it seemed to have corrupted your common sense,” he pointed out the obvious. “You could kill yourself before you could save him. If you use up the strings now, you wouldn’t be able to fight me anymore, and it would also be much easier for me to kill him if he is without your protection.”

You paused your movement, the chanting falling off your tongue as your mouth hung open in a defeated gasp. As much as you hated to admit it, he was right. This would be much worse than last time. It was only one wrong string spaced out on one arm, this time you’ve got a variety of colors tightly packed across both, and you were already bleeding from them. Exhausting yourself to heal him would result in utter failure.

But you still had to heal him somehow.

“It would be futile to heal him with normal strings as such yours, my dear. The shard I slashed him with was cursed,” the man paused dramatically, “just like your uncle’s.”

You gulped down a hefty breath.

You still had to heal Jisung somehow. You had to keep him alive somehow.

You just needed one more string.

Blinking down at Jisung, who heaved out a breath when he barely saw that you were staring at him, a slow realization came to mind. Your heart clenched at the thought, it was unwilling and it protested against it, but your head balanced the cost of each possible outcome and thought that would be the best outcome you could ask for: an outcome where Jisung comes out alive.

It was the outcome your heart has to settle with.

Bringing your hand up to his cheeks, you forced a small smile onto your face. “Hang on here, okay?” You asked him, leaning down to kiss the corner of his mouth. “I’ll come back and fix you right up, okay? Just hang on for a moment.”

Standing up with your back facing the councilman, you closed your eyes to calm your nerves. And you thought about what you were trying to achieve. You were leaning into the vengeance and the anger you have accumulated throughout the years, leaning into the pain and the fear you have felt for your friends.

Your strings glowed in their own respective color, zapping a lightning bolt up to your skin and causing a scorching heat in your bloodstream. And you were relieved to feel that, you were relieved to be able to feel anything at all. It was exactly that kind of energy you needed to cast a spell as strong as the one you were about to do.

You could barely remember it from a few years ago when you crept back into your abandoned home after sneaking into the city to visit your uncle. 

You have done that in hopes to be able to research spells that could possibly wake him up, and you have come across a rather deadly spell hidden in a grimoire of other dark magic spells. It was at the top of the bookshelves in your father’s office; seemed like he didn’t really try to hide it from you.

“Just help me this one last time, okay?” You whispered to your strings, hoping they’d hear. “My family did make you. I don’t know how, but just one last time, please.”

The councilman furrowed his brows at you, watching your unmoving figure with impatience and annoyance. “Why must you keep defying us, (Name)?” He asked, “Just come back. We assure you that your life would be easy.”

You turned around, your expression was suspicious and unenthusiastic. The way you were making your way towards him, completely unguarded and casual, just like any other begrudging teenager holding a grudge against the world, was frankly unnerving.

“You are so goddamn annoying,” you muttered under your breath as you stopped in front of him.

“If would not be if you had left with me the first time I asked,” he said.

“Fine then. I’ll fucking go.” You gave him a faint smile then, tilting your head to the side. And, after a calculated pause, you stepped on his feet to catch him off guard before quickly moving your hands up, one stacked on top of the other, and you grabbed his face in your palm. “I’ll see you in Hell.”

“Vapius Mor Molaedo!” You chanted through gritted teeth, clenching through the razor-like pain when your strings massively tightened around your skin, causing redness to squirt through the air. The blood didn’t fall to the ground, however.

Your strings caught each droplet with their magic and linked it towards where your hand was, adding more fuel to the death spell you have just chanted.

A heated explosion blast across your palm, burning your skin and blinding your eyes. Surely, people walking near the area would be able to hear the sound of it, it was loud enough to echo and travel through the atmosphere. 

Dust erupted from the impact and you closed your eyes, hiding your face in your arms until all has quieted down and you felt like you could breathe air again.

Your hands dropped to your side and you coughed out of exhaustion. Tears that had welled up in your eyes rolled down your cheeks, even more so when you glanced down at the kneeling body in front of you.

You gasped in, your breath jagged as you watched the headless body stumble before falling to the side. You did that, you thought, you killed him. An acid rush engulfed your lungs then, running up your throat and you immediately turned to the side, your mouth agape with a hellish urge to puke at what you have done.

Pull yourself together, (Name)! Pull yourself together!

You huffed out a breath before quickly standing up straight and running back to where Jisung was. “Jisung! Jisung, wake up!” You shook him as soon as you knelt down beside him, holding his body up and placing him on your lap.

He opened his eyes weakly, his hands moving up to grip yours and he gently hissed at the texture of your blood. Glancing up at you, a noise came from the back of his throat when he saw tears streaming down your face. He nudged his head against your side, trying to comfort you as much as his body allowed him to.

“Hey,” you laughed, wiping your hand before touching his face for a moment. “I’m gonna fix you up, okay? You just wait.”

Jisung wanted to protest. Your were already bleeding all over, he wasn’t sure how you would go about healing him at all. Besides, he heard what the councilman just said to you, that there was poison in his system and a normal string wouldn’t be able to save him, so how were you going to do it? 

But, nonetheless, he wanted the pain to go, therefore he chose to wait.

That was until you grabbed him by his hand, holding him up, and you pinched his pinky where the soulmate string laid.

You gasped when Jisung suddenly cried out, his voice raspy. When you looked down at him, he had his eyes widened in fear and his hands retreated back to his chest where he protected it with his free hand, holding onto it despite how much pain the straining gave him.

He realized that you were planning to heal him through the soulmate string.

“N–no! Not th–this!”

You pursed your lips together and shook your head, pulling strongly at his hand. “I have to, Jisung, I am not going to let you die,” you consoled.

“No! Pl–please–I don’t–forget–“ His words were short and quick, but his intentions were clear.

_Don’t break the string, please don’t break the string. I don’t want to forget you._

“You are going to die if I don’t, okay? I am saving you, Jisung. Please listen to me,” you said urgently. “You will be fine, you will forget me. You won’t feel any pain from this. And I’d rather live with that than having you dead in my arms.”

But Jisung didn’t want to forget you.

Jisung would rather die as your soulmate than live not being yours.

At least that way, he left belonging to somebody, and the somebody wasn’t just anybody but you, the person he fell so deeply in love with.

“No–no–please–“ He cried, his eyes squeezing shut when his arms gave away to you. He was too tired and he felt like his body would soon betray him as well. And not only that, his heart was shattering at the thought of your soulmate link being broken.

Why you both? Why does it have to be like this?

He just got you back. There were so many things he still wanted to do. He wanted to do everything and nothing with you; to sit around in his room and look out at the sky, to chat quietly at night, and giggle when his dad comes around to tell you both to shut up.

He hasn’t done enough yet; he hasn’t kissed you enough yet, he hasn’t touched you yet, and he definitely hasn’t loved you to the amount he was satisfied with yet.

“(Name)!” His hands thrashed everywhere, reaching to his pants and his wound, and to your hand and at last, settling at your wrists. He was crying, his cries were so loud and gut-wrenching that your hands trembled when you were trying to break your soulmate string apart.

Stop doing that, Jisung. You couldn’t let go when he is crying like this.

“It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be fine,” you muttered one last time before you, with quivering fingers, snapped the soulmate string in half.

You could feel the magic in your hands, vibrating. And you manually wrapped them around your arms, lumping the string on top of your bloodied ones and letting the coldness heal your skin temporarily. You looked down at Jisung, who was staring back up at you, his head shaking in protest despite what has already been done.

Maybe he was just looking in hopes that he wouldn’t forget, in hopes that he could break all odds of the universe and remember you somehow.

Smiling down at him, you leaned close and pressed your forehead to his. You nudged the tip of your nose against his, your tears mixing in and rolling down to Jisung’s lips where he could taste the saltiness.

He reached out for your hand, his hiccups crushing to hear, and he fumbled with your fingers as if to play with them.

“I love you, so much. At least remember that,” you said. “And no matter what, you will always be my soulmate.” Because you don’t want any other soulmate but him.

“Phasmatos Caestrum Medeor,” you whispered.

The soulmate string on your arm tightened just as Jisung finally intertwined his fingers with yours. He closed his eyes when he felt a chill down his spine, an indescribable feeling lingering on his wound where it had stopped hurting seconds ago.

He looked at you, for the last time worry flooded his chest at the way you were swaying in exhaustion.

A bright white light surrounded him, he could feel his wound heal up and the heat in his veins vanish. The light knocked him out cold after stealing the air from his lungs and his head dropped to the side, fainting.

You looked down at his body, your hand reaching down to touch the stained area of his vest. You slipped your hand under it and felt his skin sewed up as if nothing has happened, and his body has returned to its normal temperature.

 _Good._ You thought, and you dropped to the ground next to him.

* * *

Felix was the first person to notice you stirring on the hospital bed. He stood up immediately and rushed over to your side, almost crashing into you in the process. He managed to stop abruptly before the bed and he stared down at you, his eyes glossed over with tears as he beamed at you opening your eyes again.

The light in the hospital was blinding but you were quick to adjust. The first thing you noticed was all the tight bandages lining up your arms, covering your string scars. When you turned to Felix again, your chest relaxed against the bed and you shut your eyes tight. They got out of the ward, great. Killing the councilman did the job, you assumed.

“Hey, Felix,” you greeted tiredly.

“(Name),” he grabbed your hand in his own, “oh, I’m so glad you woke up.”

“Have you been waiting here?” You raised a brow weakly, smiling at you.

Felix giggled, nodding his head almost eagerly. His smile was bright, it was rubbing off on you and making you feel ten times better than when you woke up. “Yeah. Seungmin and I have been going in and out of the hospital, and I am in charge of looking after you for now!”

“You didn’t find me, did you?” You asked, tilting your head to the side as you reached up to ruffle his hair in gratitude.

He shook his head, frowning slightly. “No, someone else did. They called the school when they found you guys, and we kind of figured it could be you when we were asked about having any absentees in class.”

You pursed your lips then, giving Felix’s soft hands a clench. “Is Hyunjin okay?” You asked.

Felix sucked in a deep breath, concern crossing over his eyes for a moment before he shook his head. “He was bleeding from the inside and he got a really bad concussion. The school nurse sent him to the hospital after seeing the giant bruise he got on his chest. That shadowy thing really hit him hard.”

“Damn…” You furrowed your brows. “Felix, do you think it’s possible to get me some green strings? Normal threads will do the job too.”

His brows raised immediately at your indication, and he whined out in dismay. “I could but I don’t want to help you if you’re going to use magic,” he said, then he gestured at your arms, “Look at you! You are injured and you lost a lot of blood. I won’t let you do that to yourself.”

You huffed out a laugh. “Felix, if I can get some strings, I can heal myself up in no time,” you said. “Then I can heal Hyunjin as well.”

“And Jisung?” He asked, looking at you innocently.

You pursed your lips together upon hearing his name, a weighted feeling on your chest as you unconsciously tightened your grip around his hands. You looked up at Felix, seeing that his smile has dimmed significantly when your eyes teared up. 

Giving him a soft sigh, you asked again, “Can I have some green threads, please, Felix?”

He slowly let go of you. There was a patch of guilty sewed up in his heart, the part of him that wished he could have done more to help constantly trying to tear his self-esteem down and invalidate your friendship.

Seungmin had to give up sitting in your room because Felix was trying so hard to convince him to check on the other two since Seungmin seemed to already be on friendly terms with you while he was stuck being an acquaintance more than anything.

And Felix wanted to be a close friend. He really liked you, you were laid-back and fun to be around. He just never got the chance to talk to you more, and he still felt bad for not reaching out to you during the tough times of what happened with you and Jisung.

Now that he has the opportunity to help, his heart was tugging at him to do it. Just a few threads, as you said, he could probably find it in a department store somewhere around or maybe even find it in this big hospital.

“Okay,” he nodded as he said. “But wait here and don’t go anywhere, okay? I will be right back.”

You spent the quiet moments thinking. Your mind was filled with all the things you needed to do. Heal Hyunjin up, heal yourself up, explain to your friends that you had to leave the city for a while because you suspected your uncle would be awake, your relationship with Jisung.

You bit your lower lip, suppressing the tears as you looked out the window at the dancing leaves outside. You wondered if Jisung was okay? Has he awaken yet and whether you wanted to see him at all? Surely, you did want to see him, you always want to see him.

But you suspected that you won’t have the capability to handle him not remembering you; to not see his eyes light up with familiarity when he sees you again would most definitely break your heart.

You have gone through that once already.

“Hey, I’m back!”

Felix was panting when he rushed into the room, a plastic bag in his hand. He approached the bed and set it down on the edge, then he reached inside and pulled out a thick, green thread roll. 

“I don’t know if you have any specific preferences over the textures,” he muttered in a pout. “But I tried feeling all of them and I picked out the best one I can find!”

You giggled as you grabbed it in your hand, your brows raising in approval. Not the best texture you have ever felt but good enough for a thread that was made to sew up fabrics. “Thank you, Felix,” you said, smiling at him.

He waved you off with a happy shrug, scratching the back of his head as he muttered something incoherently adorable. You sat up then, turning to your side so you could throw your legs over the edge of the bed. Felix stumbled back a few steps, watching you carefully and bringing your IV stand along with you. 

He probably wasn’t supposed to aid you in leaving the bed without permission, but he supposed it was for the best.

You could heal yourself up in seconds, after all.

“Here, you can hold my arm,” he said, holding his hand out and waiting for you.

You accepted with a giggle, and you two slowly walked along the hospital hallway that would lead you to Hyunjin’s room. Seungmin was not inside when you two arrived so you simply assumed he was sitting with Jisung.

Moving into the room, Felix let your hand slip away from his before he closed the door and leaned against it, making sure if anybody tried to walk in you would know.

You puffed out your cheeks when you saw Hyunjin laying on the bed. A heart monitor beeping at the side and his pretty eyes closed in a deep slumber. Giving him a double glance, you scoffed with gentle eyes.

“How do you manage to look so pretty even like this,” you pointed out sarcastically as you brushed his hand for a moment before taking it in your hand. You stared at it, remorse filling your lungs. “I’m so sorry about this, this is all my fault.”

And then you pulled away. Felix watched with furrowed brows as you slowly peeled on the bandage of one arm before the other, his lips pursing hardly when he saw the bulging lines of your scars. He has seen your arms all bloodied up before but he felt like he had taken for granted the fact that you healed it up in seconds.

Seeing the wounds turn into scars just hit him like a sack of rocks that magic, albeit extremely convenient, are still very vicious and threatening.

“(Name)…” he called out when you instantly flinched at the feeling of wrapping the thread around your thumb so you could start building a pattern.

“I’m okay, don’t worry about it,” you threw him a forced smile before looking down at your hands again, trying to wash away the anxiety that kept building up when you thought about those strings squeezing your arms again, and not to mention the damage it did to your head when you looked at your hand and saw a murder weapon that blasted a man’s head off.

Felix gritted his teeth, his face morphing in extreme distress at how heavily your hand was trembling just from the action of making a pattern. You failed once, and twice, and thrice before he finally got the hang of it. And when you cast the spell to let the string engulf themselves around your arm, you flinched with a sharp intake of breath.

You forced yourself to calm down, to remember that you were here to heal yourself. But when you were trying to activate the magic on yourself by saying the spell again, you found yourself stuttering. 

It was messing with your head, magic was messing with your head and it likely would keep doing so because of how much you needed to use it.

_For Hyunjin. Do it for Hyunjin, do it for your friend. He deserves to wake up._

“Impe–Imprium Pe–” You closed your eyes tightly. “Imperium Pertrix.”

The healing coldness of the string did not give you any sort of relief, all you could focus on was how much it was squeezing you because of the cheap string you had to use. 

You waited, unable to watch the wound sunk into your skin and the original color resurfacing to create a smooth surface. You only did so when the feeling was gone, and you immediately took the string off your arms.

Waiting for a little while, breathing as you leaned against Hyunjin’s bed, you grabbed the roller and started again, using a better spell this time.

It took a while but Hyunjin stirred after the spell was done doing its job. You were in the middle of taking off the strings when he opened his eyes and immediately scoffed at the sight of you. 

Before you could give him a response, his brows furrowed and he reached out for your hand, not able to find the time to be surprised at how energized he felt.

“You’re trembling,” he mentioned, looking up at you pointedly. “Did the spell do this?”

You shook your head. “No, it was just… it was just me,” you gave him a half-smile before quickly grabbing a hold of his hand and dipping your head. “I’m so sorry you had to endure that, Hyunjin. It was my fault this happened to you, all of you.”

He stayed silent for a while, his eyes softening only because you weren’t looking at him directly. He was never mad at you. If he had been the one to be taken away, he would have risked his life to save your ass so you wouldn’t have to go back to that damn city ever again. 

He took part in helping you build a better memory here, he wasn’t going to let his effort go to waste so easily.

Hyunjin pursed his lips and huffed. “I guess I’ll forgive you,” he muttered. “Did you save the day? Are you still leaving us now?”

“For a little while, yes.” You nodded, turning back when Felix let out a surprised noise and feeling Hyunjin tightened his grip on your hand. Shaking your head, you sighed. “No, I am going back to see my uncle. I think he might finally be awake now.”

Felix’s frown changed in a blink of an eye then and he clapped his hands together in amazement, feeling genuinely happy for you.

“Oh my god, that’s great–actually, wait!” He paused before he spoke again, “Wait okay, I don’t mean to ruin the mood but don’t get your hopes up too much? Because what if–“

“Shut up, Felix!” Hyunjin whined, a smile tugging at his lips. He looked up at you then, his eyes teasing and bright as they were and his hand waving yours around. “You better come back, okay? You still haven’t tried dating me yet.”

“Felix, close the door, I’m going to strangle him,” you jokingly said as you turned back, and Felix followed along by giving you a firm nod and pushing his back up against the door.

“I’m just joking! Jeez, (Name), can you live with my blood on your hands?” He rolled his eyes.

It was like a lightning zap rushing across your brain. Hyunjin had accidentally crossed over a line he wasn’t supposed to, and although it was not his intention to do so, he had triggered the anxious beam within you. But you held it down, not wanting to explode in front of him or Felix simply because you still not at that level with them yet.

After giving him a fake smile, which Hyunjin brushed off as sarcasm, you removed your hand from his and looked up.

“Can I see Seungmin, please?” You asked.

* * *

Seungmin saw your hand at the window, beckoning him out. Not quite understanding why you couldn’t just walk inside, he got up from his chair and quickly left Jisung’s room so he could see you.

You breathed out the stored up sign when you saw his face, your brows furrowing uncontrollably as you immediately went to him with your arms opened.

Seungmin was quick to reciprocate the hug, his hands gently patting your back as you breathed and sobbed against his shoulder. He patiently waited like last time, giving you the time and space you needed before you pulled away.

“What happened?” He asked tentatively then, his thumb reaching out to wipe at your eyes.

“So much hap–happened, I…” you looked down at your trembling hands and back up at him. “Seungmin, I killed him. I explode–his head just–“

“Take it slow,” he said lowly, putting his hands on each side of your jaw and staring into your eyes. “Don’t say it if you can’t stand thinking about it. It’s okay.”

You nodded under his touch, your lips pursed together as tears flowed down your cheeks. You would much prefer not to say it, even though all you wanted to do was to free the memory from your chest.

It was a conflicting feeling, the desire of wanting to let it go but unable to do so when the moment comes because of how traumatized you felt, and your paranoia spoke to you on a personal level when it told you the monstrous veins in your hands would make people leave you.

And you have grown to be afraid of being alone, very much.

“I… I just came here to tell you that I am going to leave for a while to see my uncle,” you said. “And you guys might have to cover for me when I vanish.”

Seungmin frowned, possibly not fond of the idea but also knowing he wouldn’t be able to hold you down if your mind was set on leaving the hospital. He tilted his head to the side, his brow raised slightly in question. 

“Are you sure you can go back?” He asked, “Do you want any of us to go with you–actually, don’t you want to wait until Jisung wakes up…”

His voice trailed off when you frowned at him sadly, your eyes shaky and wide as you stared at him. Something happened, you didn’t need to tell him for him to know, it was too obvious. He leaned back a little, his chest rising as yet another problem rose from the ground, and he asked, “What happened?”

“Jisung…” you mumbled and paused, jutting out your bottom lip a little. “He… uhh… he is not going to remember me anymore because I broke the soulmate string to save him.”

He breathed out a soft protest, able to fully process the situation but was simply unwilling to accept it somehow. Looking at you right now, you seemed fine on the exterior. Even when Jisung was brought in, the doctors weren’t able to find any reasons why he had fainted for so long aside from him possibly getting experiencing shock from the headless body people found near you two.

He had no idea what happened, and frankly, he was too afraid to ask for details. But he supposed you were heartbroken because of it, judging from your current expression and your relationship with Jisung.

“What… what are you going to do then?” He asked.

“I don’t know.” You shrugged. “I think I am just going to avoid him, but I will figure it out on my trip to visit my uncle.”

“You don’t have to avoid him, (Name),” he said after a moment. “He fell in love with you before, he can fall in love with you again. Just because you guys aren’t soulmates anymore doesn’t mean he won’t find you loveable.”

You knew that, of course. You just needed time to come to terms with the fact that you would have to start everything over again, and you could have to deal with the fear that things may not unfold the way it had before, that he may not fall in love with you this time around and you would have to let it happen normally.

“I’ll see you later,” you muttered.

“Wait.” He grabbed your elbow, pulling you back. There was an urgent expression in his eyes when you glanced up at him, and Seungmin gestured towards the room. “He is asleep, are you sure you don’t want to check up on him?”

You moved over to the window, which you had purposefully not look because you knew Jisung was just lying there. And your heart stopped at the sight of him sleeping peacefully on the bed, resting well and safe. 

It was all you needed to know for now; you wouldn’t dare go near him despite how hopelessly you wanted to do so. If you went near him then you probably wouldn’t be able to leave.

“He’s fine, right?” You croaked out, your voice giving your emotions away.

Seungmin nodded. “Yes, but we don’t know when he is going to wake up.”

“Okay,” you said. “Don’t worry, he definitely will. The soulmate string isn’t designed to kill a soulmate.”

Funny you said that. It certainly did kill you inside.

Seungmin frowned deeper at you, watching as you placed your hand at the glass window for a moment before removing yourself from it and looking at him.

“Okay, I’m going to leave now,” you said. “Cover me, seriously. I’ll be back soon.”

“You better,” he said begrudgingly. “If not then I will personally head over and drag you back here.”

You laughed at him, but deep inside, you wondered about the possibility of him having to do that.

* * *

It felt weird to be back in a city where most things were fueled by magic. There were fewer cars on the street, much less public transpositions. Thos only existed for the very little portion of normal people who lived in this city. It has been too long since you’ve felt such a magical atmosphere that walking into a hospital felt like a heated dream.

There were almost no people there. Everyone was able to heal themselves so there was really no point for one.

You carefully made your way through the halls, alert in each of your steps while you made your way to your uncle’s room. Standing in front of it, you rubbed your hands together nervously before giving it a few knocks. The door flung open after a moment, and the first face you saw was not the one you were hoping to see.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” You asked, glaring up at Minho.

He took a few steps back with his hands held up in surrender. “Hey, I have absolutely no part in whatever happened, alright?” He said, “I only heard about it recently when my friend mentioned it to me that the council dispatched a member to look for you.”

“I don’t fucking believe you–“

“(Name).”

You paused at your uncle’s voice, your mind jumping when you realized that he was awake and he just spoke to you. Moving away from Minho, you brushed past him and headed over to the bed where he was sitting. His eyes were soft when you approached, nostalgia hitting every fiber of his veins as he looked at you and saw his deceased sibling in your features.

“Minho, can you get out for a moment?”

“Chan–“

“Please?” Chan looked over, giving them a pursed smile. “I just want to talk to them in private.”

Minho breathed out a sigh then, nodding and sending you a faint, apologetic look before he turned and left the place.

You found a chair and sat down next to the bed, your eyes looking at him as if he was some stranger you have never met before. And in some ways, he was. Surely he hasn’t changed much in terms of appearances, but due to the long period of you never visiting him and never being able to talk to him, Chan simply felt like a familiar stranger at the moment.

He sighed, his eyes ever so soft as he looked at you. And when he reached out to your face, his finger gingerly brushing at your hair as he asked you if you have been taking care of yourself when he was gone, all it reminded you of were your friends.

You pursed your lips together, feeling the strong urge to cry but not comfortable enough to let him see you do so. Nodding your head, you replied, “Yeah, kind–kind of. I met people who took really good care of me.”

“That’s good, I’m glad you did,” he said before asking, “Did you have anything to do with me waking up, then?”

You nodded your head, unable to look at him now. Seeing your dejected state, Chan decided it would be best to brush off the topic and wait until you dared to bring it up to him. He did realize how weird it would be for you to simply bounce back on the family train and act as if he has been there for you his entire life.

“Okay, but that isn’t really what I am the most interested in,” he said. “I want to know what happened these years? Where did you go? How did you meet your friends?”

You gradually felt better as you talked about your life to him, starting from the day you decided to leave the city, and then to your journey of finding part-time jobs and sleeping in obscure places, then to the day you met this boy who was late to school and couldn’t pull himself over the school gate, until now.

With the way Chan was nodding and listening to you, you found yourself not leaving a single happy detail about the recent months of your life. You told him everything, about finding a new home and gaining more friends and finding a soulmate. A

nd Chan looked glad that you were able to find people who put the effort into their sincerity.

“So did you guys ever end up petting the cats?” He asked, his eyes narrowing in confusion.

You clapped your hands together and shook your head. “Yeah, no we didn’t… something happened when we were trying to find it and things started going bad from there.”

He hummed, understanding your dodgy response and immediately jumping onto another topic to avoid triggering you. 

“Well, one thing I can be sure to tell you right now is that you won’t ever have to worry about the council again,” he mentioned, eyeing you knowingly. “Since I am awake, I would be the next in line instead of you, which was very shitty of them to do, by the way.”

You hardened your gaze in mutual agreement and sighed heavily, not wanting to think about those hard times.

“But I am going to resign from it, completely. Our family will have no affiliation with the council and they will have no more rights to force us to do anything,” he said, raising a brow at you as if to ask for your opinion. 

You only gave him a shrug, indicating that you really could not give two shits about the council as long as you wouldn’t be a part of it.

“I will, however, try to restart the company again and start manufacturing the strings again,” he said then, crossing his arms and leaning back against the pillow. “We have the money to do that, not that you would know anything about those.”

“I don’t know what you are implying,” you blinked at him as you said defensively.

“I want you to continue your education, (Name),” he said. “Starting from ninth grade.”

“Wha–no! Uncle Chan, I am eighteen–“

“Who stopped going to school at what age again? Ten? Eleven?”

“I don’t know, when did you fall into a cursed coma and left me to fend for myself?”

Chan’s jaw dropped in faint amusement. That was harsh, he had to admit.

“It is embarrassing,” you said with a pout. “I can just work. You can teach me.”

“No,” he refused immediately, shaking his head. “If you want to, I can get you started on homeschooling and hire tutors, but that would require you to be back at our house sometime during the day and I think you wouldn’t want that, would you?”

You looked at him, tilting your head. “What do you mean?”

Chan smiled a little then, shrugging. “I just figured you might want to go back to your friends instead of staying here, right?” He said, “I am completely fine with it though, but you have got to attend a school over there. A physical school.”

You looked at him for a while, debating whether you want to spill the beans, and how you could go about talking about it without messing your mind up. 

“Yeah… about that…” You sucked in a breath before you started rambling out everything. Everything about losing your soulmate, at least.

When you were done, Chan looked none other than confused, and you found it almost irritating that he was giving you such a strange look after you explained to him about how you literally just lost your soulmate and felt completely hopeless about it.

“You aren’t being very comforting, you know that right?” You muttered, throwing him a deadpanned gaze.

Chan shook his head with a weird laugh, his index finger pointing at your hand. “No, it’s just,” you squinted his eyes then, trying to look better before he looked back up at you. “What are you talking about? Your fate string is right there.”

“I am going to apologize for being rude to you for the next five minutes or so.” You frowned at him and almost flipped him off. “But it’s not funny, it’s not funny.”

“No–oh my god, (Name), it’s your soulmate,” he exclaimed, jabbing at your hand. “It is right there. Literally! Take a look at it, please!”

You haven’t given your pinky another look, mostly because you didn’t want to slap it to yourself that you would no longer see a string there. But seeing Chan looking so excited like this, you decided to finally give it a look. Pinching your pinky finger, you brought it up to your face and willed the magic in it to appear.

A string slowly manifested itself in thin air, the root of the knot coloring itself a shade of red. Your mind blanked out. When did this happen? Why did it look like the string your family makes instead of a legitimate soulmate string? Rolling your eyes upwards, you recalled the times of you breaking the soulmate string and trying to recall if you have made a mistake.

You didn’t, though. You were crying, Jisung was crying, you broke the string, Jisung was clawing at your hand and fumbling with your fingers, you chanted a spell to heal him—you gasped suddenly, a thought coming to mind. It could be a possibility, just an idea.

Jisung could have picked up the strings the councilman told you to drop on the floor when you lied to him about peacefully leaving with him, the strings that didn’t get the chance to be used before they were taken off. Perhaps he had, in the nick of time, tied it around your pinky before you healed him.

The soulmate string didn’t just heal his injury. It mistook the breaking of itself, the emptiness on his pinky as a flaw that it should heal as well. Therefore, when it sewed up his wound with its godly magic, it mended the ‘soulmate’ string Jisung replaced as well, meaning that technically speaking, you have never actually broken it before.

Jisung could still remember you.

Your heart palpitated at the thought. He could remember you, he could still be your soulmate—oh heavens, you wanted nothing more than to find him. You wanted to see him, right now, quickly.

“Uncle Chan, I think I need to leave for a while,” you said sheepishly, not looking at him.

“Yeah, I can tell.” He chuckled.

“Oh god, I need to get a train ticket now,” you grabbed your bag and reached inside to fumble for your wallet. 

You grimaced then, remembering how embarrassing it was to have to call Seungmin about buying a train ticket since you just could not understand the routes and prices. It took you three days of stubbornness before you finally mustered up the courage to ask him for help after school.

Chan stared at you in utter confusion, unable to understand why you would choose public transportation rather than the good old fashioned magic. He tapped your knee, getting your attention, then he asked, “Just use a teleportation spell, why are you spending money on train tickets?”

You licked your lower lip. It was yet another story you haven’t told him yet. “I–I can’t properly use magic right now,” you muttered, feeling a slight tremor in your hands and you suppressed it by holding your wallet tighter. “I promise I will tell you everything one day, but I just… I can’t now.”

His chest tightened with defeat. He has a lot to make up for as well, even though it wasn’t his choice to be struck with a curse that now belonged to a dead man. The least he could give you right now was understanding, and also to save you from hours on a busy train.

“Okay then. Just stay here, I’m sure I can find a friend who can get you back to the city quicker than a train could,” he said and turned to you. “If all goes well, you still have to come back, okay? We have to talk about school and whatnot.”

You nodded at him, jumping off the chair and leaning in to give him a small hug. His hand patted against your back, yet another familiar feeling you’ve received from your friends before. After pulling away, Chan sucked in a breath and he suggested, “You can bring your soulmate over too if you want.”

And you promised him that if all goes well, you would.

* * *

You stood under the building of Jisung’s home, glancing up with puffy cheeks and squinted eyes. Oh, this felt stupid, this felt so stupid.

After arriving at the hospital Jisung was supposed to be at and biding Chan’s friend goodbye, you headed in only to find out that Jisung was discharged from the hospital only an hour after you boarded the train. And since you doubted he would be at school, you made your way back to his home instead.

It was a familiar route. You could walk your way there.

You were so confident about it when you were on the bus. You were giving yourself pep talks about what to say and how to say it, and you kept telling yourself to not feel too disappointed if you were proven to be way over your head about this The theory was just a theory, it could be wrong even though you desperately hoped for it to be true.

But as soon as you arrived at the familiar gate of the building, you were unable to make another move. You didn’t try to head inside despite knowing the passcode to the gate, and you had been standing in front of it completely frozen solid

Perhaps this was a bad idea? Perhaps you should simply leave things as they are now? But what if Jisung did remember you, could you live with never letting yourself know the truth?

Impulsively, you took out your phone and dialed his number. You held it to your ear, letting it ring on and on, your heart sinking more and more with each annoyingly loud ring. Just as you were about to give up, though, the other line picked up and Jisung’s voice rang through anxiously.

“(Name)?”

Oh, that was your name. You almost couldn’t recognize it.

“Uh…” You cleared your throat with a pursed of your lips, your eyes watering at his voice calling your name so enthusiastically. And the first thing you thought about doing was not to say hello but to hang up the call.

Your eyes widened right after you clicked on the button and you screamed internally at how stupid that decision was. Perhaps you were too ecstatic about the fact that he remembered you, or maybe you were too nervous that you couldn’t fathom talking to him at all.

Pacing around the gate, you stopped for a moment, looked up at the building once again, and finally decided maybe you should leave for the school instead. It would be easier if you talk it through with your friends first, they could probably give you a much better pep talk than you ever could for yourself. 

You could almost imagine the look Seungmin would give you—annoyed, fed-up with your stupidity, but still rather soft nonetheless.

“Yeah, yeah,” you nodded to yourself as you muttered, your legs taking you away from the building. “Yeah, let’s talk over this first. Let's–” You casually looked up from your feet, and immediately your eyes widened.

What are the goddamn odds?

Jisung stood at a distance from you, looking wide-eyed and mouth agape in surprise. You pinched your fingers together, then you rubbed your thumb to your pinky, and suddenly you saw it. Your soulmate string has changed, it was no longer a dull shade of red, it was a mixture of all the different colored strings you had been using for your magic.

A sour sensation built up in your nose as you sucked in a rapid breath, shivering from the realization that your assumption was correct. Jisung did, in fact, tied your strings at your fingers before you thought you ended it all for the both of you.

He was still your soulmate. He said your name. He was looking at you. He remembered, and you were never gone.

Jisung felt his pinky wiggle instinctively and a twisted euphoria flowered within his chest. He had no idea if his plan would work, it was a desperate call, and when he woke up looking for you, he was overjoyed at the fact that you had not been erased from his mind.

You were still with him, he could still love you.

You two ran towards each other, your lips crashing against each other in the middle. His hands found your cheeks, pressing against them and pulling you close to him to deepen the kiss. Your lips were still soft despite its less than careful movements, and Jisung loved every moment of it

God, he thought he would never do this again and it had felt like the end of the world for him.

When he pulled away, he pressed his forehead against yours just for the sake of keeping you close to him. His thumb caressed your cheeks.

And when you looked into his warm eyes, it felt as if your souls have collided where destiny couldn’t touch, where your love for each other stood independently from where the stars aligned your fates for you.

A lot of things have happened.

You finding him from all the way across a city, at one little high school out of all the places. Him being persistent in the pursuit of friendship that had ultimately led to you both bonding and falling madly in love with each other. You making friends through his presence, friends who have taught you important lessons that ultimately helped you make the choices you did. You bring asked to drop your strings and Jisung somehow picking it up for no reason.

It almost felt hilarious when you recalled it all in your head.

“I thought I lost you again,” Jisung muttered as he pulled you into his arms, hugging you tight.

“Me too,” you said, returning the hug, “but oh, here we are once again.”

Jisung laughed, moving away and showing you his brilliant smile. It was filled with love, gingerly, and utterly for you. His hands were held tightly in yours, swinging at your side just to have something to do.

You two were phenomenal. Truly a pair with the most annoying, most stubborn bond the universe has ever witnessed amongst the unfortunate candidates they have chosen to mess up before. No matter how much the universe kept trying to tear you both away, you seemed to find your way back to each other at the end.

You two really took the concept of soulmate too seriously.

“I would kiss you again but uhh,” Jisung smiled awkwardly as he glanced to the side, a blush creeping onto his cheeks. “My parents are looking, aren’t they?”

You nodded at him, your eyes moving away just a second to look behind his shoulder. “Yeah, but at least they look happy.”

“Be glad they aren’t saying anything,” he whispered at you, leaning close to your face anyway, causing you to giggle.

“That’s good, I wonder if my uncle would shut up after he sees you,” you said as you rolled your eyes. And to turn Jisung’s confused expression away, you explained, “He woke up.”

“Oh yay!” He exclaimed, hopping lightly before he asked, “But how?“

You sucked in a breath then, your expression changing faintly to indicate that you weren’t very comfortable with talking about it. "We… we have _much_ to talk about.”

“Yeah, we do.” He nodded understandingly.

You have as much to talk about yourself as he does. He didn’t say anything about it but he noticed the trembling of your hands when he wasn’t holding it tightly, and he suspected it had something to do with what you did to save the both of you. 

And he, too, didn’t end up that far away from the trauma train. Hand movements were startling him more than it should, and his hands often instinctively fly to his abdomen in fear.

You two were gonna have to deal with that at some point, and he suspected it would be easier to explain it to your uncle about it than his parents.

“I also have to go back to see my uncle again,” you informed, slipping it into mid-conversation casually. “So… uh… I am going to need to get another train ticket.”

When Jisung gave you a weird look, having discarded his previous thoughts upon the surprise that you were willingly taking public transport, you shook your head. “A lot to talk about.”

“Noted, noted, noted,” he immediately said. “I can come with you if you want, how long is the ride?”

“Like about two to three hours or so,” you muttered, trying to remember the amount of time you spent staring out the window. “It didn’t feel too long, I was pretty occupied.”

“Aww,” he cooed. “Were you thinking about me?”

“No, I was wondering if my uncle was actually awake or if I was expecting too much.”

“Right, yeah, I didn’t know why I said that.”

You laughed at his panicked expression. It was quite fun to see it, the way he would smile until his cheeks puff out and his brows would furrow to show you just the smallest amount of remorse that he had made a cheesy joke at a terrible time. 

The truth was that you did think about him during the train ride, a lot, but he didn’t have to know that.

Your giggle trailed off, and then you two just stared at each other in silence, drowning in each other and basking in the triumph that this—holding each other and standing so close together—has turned from being just a possibility to a truth. 

It was really something to behold, the way you two seemed to work both in favor of the odds and against them.

“You are coming home though, right?” He slowly asked after a moment, his eyes softening at the familiar question. “I am going to see you tonight?”

It was the littlest kind of bliss from the smallest things, like a phrase that was spoken before everything changed, and it hit you like emotional waves when you realized how much the words mean differently to you now. 

It made you smiled a little, feeling at ease with it despite the question originally being confusing and frustrating at best.

“I think we can go home right now,” you said. “I don’t really have anywhere to go.”

It was all different now.

He squeezed your hands with a nod. Your pinkies instinctively found each other, interwinding loosely in an unspoken pinky promise. A white light surrounded you both, one that none of you could see due to having your eyes fixated on each other, but among the holy glow was the flowing of a rainbow-colored string. It twisted and turned, but never entangled and will never be broken again.

It was the first soulmate tie to be manually created, out of the desperate love between two fragile souls who have been through the moon and back with each other, two precious souls who have loved each other until the end and now.

The string gleamed when you and Jisung smiled at each other, and it was more celestial than ever.


End file.
